Amanda in Wonderland
by Anon Banana
Summary: Amanda Toren, a girl who is quite ordinary. But what ISN'T ordinary is when a bunny-girl appears and pushes you through a mirror. Even more out-of-the-ordinary is when you end up in Wonderland, the oddest, most unbelievable, imaginative place. Now, she wants to go home, but ends up with the Wonderland version of her friends, about to defeat a villain who reveals his true identity.
1. Amanda in Wonderland

This story is based on Lewis Carroll's _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ and _Through the Looking-Glass. _But...it is mostly based off _Though the Looking-Glass_...I guess.

My friend, RoseLocket, and I take turns in making the chapters. Also, the characters in this story are based on the Luhbpyes, a group of 6 people that we belong in, and also a few of our classmates from our room last year, Cinco-Tres.

In this case, the girl's name is Amanda, but in Wonderland, they call her Alice, for some odd reason which RoseLocket and I haven't even thought of yet. Some of the Wonderland people's genders were changed, like the Cheshire cat is now a female, and as well as the White Rabbit and the Blue Caterpillar. The Tweedles are fraternal (one female, one male), instead of identical. We added a new character named, well, you'll figure out soon, because we needed some criminal who want's to put Darkness (Yes, with a capital 'D,' since Darkness is an object which will be further explained so I won't spoil you people) over Wonderland after something tragic-from, like, 380+ years ago, since he's immortal, or whatever - happened to him.

So yeah, good luck reading, since some of the chapters I make tend to get a bit fast-moving, and stuff.

P.S. You might see plagiarism along the way, so don't mind that. You could see an explanation/description about Pikachu living in Wonderland (LOL~!), or maybe even some spell related to 'Ecri no Scripture,' or 'Dark Ecriture,' or 'Jutsu Shiki' which came from Fairy Tail (Believe me, the Scriptural Spell that you'll encounter didn't come from those spells above, and instead came from a spell related to time.), or probably even Guns Magic, or whatever you think I plagiarized.

P.S.S. If you think this story is nice, send me and RoseLocket 3 bars of milk chocolate each (or send RoseLocket 3 bars of milk chocolate and give me 5 bars of cookies and cream Hershey's :P), and send Pseudonymous Bosch, the greatest author ever, a box of dark chocolate. Yeah, that'll be friggin' awesome, I tell ya.

P.S.S.S. Did you know you're wasting your time reading this?! JUST GO AND READ! Like, NOW. Go on, now. Shoo, shoo.

**~RennRaven**

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**TAKE NOTE: I'm using the name RennRaven instead of Anon Banana since that's my WattPad name and I originally published this story in WP. And my friend, RoseLocket, is a user of WattPad who doesn't have a account.**


	2. I - Follow The White Rabbit Down

**[[RoseLocket wrote this]]**

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Amanda sat on her couch, waiting for her friends to come. It's been twenty minutes, and she had eaten half of the creamy brownies on the platter that her mom had set on the table for her and her friends. Her mom just loved to cook. Last time, during her birthday when her friends had come over, there was a whole feast on the dining table mostly consisting of sugary stuff and a box of pizza, but it wasn't really finished very well. There was one bowl that looked like it was filled with strawberry ice cream but actually it was something like salad that was practically untouched, but mom and dad ended up finishing it later at dinner after her friends had already left.

"Your friends are slow," Aaron, her older brother, remarked, coming downstairs from the second floor.

"Shut up!" Amanda said. "'Sides, I've got my computer here with me."

"Whatever," Aaron scoffed, stepping off the last staircase and walking off into the kitchen, probably to grab a snack.

Finally, as if on cue, the door flew open and there was a girl standing there with brown hair wearing glasses in a slightly frilly dress and stockings, a messenger bag slung across her chest. "Hi Amanda," she greeted without much emotion dripping from her voice as she entered.

"Turtles!" Amanda shrieked at them, throwing a pillow at her friend Lysia but since she was walking fast she took the advantage of ducking and the pillow ended up hitting the one who walked in after her, a boy wearing a black button-up blouse and matching jeans. He stopped on his tracks when the pillow hit him square in the face, and when the thing fell to the floor he was glaring at Amanda through the rectangular-shaped lenses of his glasses.

"I hate you," he hissed as Lysia and Kristina (the bored-looking girl wearing glasses), walking in after Stephen, threw their heads back and laughed so much their stomachs must've hurt.

Another of Amanda's friends went in with her hair in a ponytail and studded, flat sandals as shoes and stared at the two weirdly, oblivious to what had just happened.

"Sorry we're late, Amanda!" another voice called out, and another girl with a bob haircut and a blue collared shirt said, coming in last and closing the door behind her.

"Yeah, well you're all turtles!" Amanda hollered, getting up from the couch and quickly shutting her computer monitor screen and setting the device down.

"Amanda! Are your friends there already?" a voice called out from upstairs.

"YEAH, MOM!" Amanda yelled back.

It's twelve, and I'm hungry," Stephen muttered, walking over to the dining table and picking up a brownie, studying it. "This got any peanuts?"

"No."

"Good." Stephen bit down on the brownie.

Suddenly, Enki, the small pekingese dog Amanda owned, came barrelling towards them in a series of barks. That was weird. Enki was fat and stinky. He rarely ran like that. It was as if he were on a dog racing marathon or something.

Kristina and Lysia yelped, and Lysia went out of the way and it turned out that he was going after Kristina. The girl hurried to the dining table, pulled out a chair and stood on top of it as Enki came up to her, barking and jumping up (but the highest he could practically go was about one and a half inches). "Gyaaa!" she said. "What the hell's wrong with your dog, Amanda?!"

"Enki?" three voices called out, and the kitchen door swung open to reveal Amanda's grandmother and Aaron, who were looking curiously at their dog. Amanda's mom went down the stairs in a hurry and saw what the commotion was all about.

"Why's Enki acting like that?" Carly, the girl with the ponytail and the studded flats, asked in confusion.

"What the hell...?" Stephen muttered.

"Language," the girl in the yellow shirt, Athena, said quietly as she elbowed him in the arm.

"Hey, we're seventh grade, dude!" he said, throwing his hands in the air.

"Enki, Enki, stop," Amanda's mom said, briskly walking over to the dining table where Enki was and scooping the dog up in her arms. He seemed distracted by her appearance and stopped barking. "I'm very sorry for that, Kristina," she said apologetically.

"It's fine," Kristina said, but her wide eyes and pale face didn't really confirm it. She was hugging her knees tightly, as if she were stranded on the very top of a high skyscraper instead of a three-foot-tall chair with a dog barking up at her.

As Amanda's mom quickly brought Enki upstairs and Aaron and his grandmother resumed to their business in the kitchen, Amanda didn't have to say whatever was in her mind about the recent incident. Her mouth was an agape frown, and her eyebrows were knitted together, as if saying: what the fu-?!

"You got a pet cat, Kristina?" Lysia asked, crossing her arms.

"No! I do not!" Kristina exclaimed, hesitantly climbing off the chair as if Enki would suddenly appear under the table and bite her foot off.

"Then what the hell just happened?" Stephen said.

"You know what? Let's just forget the stupid thing and eat candy!" Amanda said, jumping over the couch and running over to the dining table. She took a brownie and stuffed it into her mouth, leaving only three on the plate.

"Hey, you're not saving for us," Carina pointed out.

"It's what you turtles get!" Amanda laughed, her mouth full of brownie.

Athena shook her head and sighed while Stephen merely frowned. Well, that was normal, since that frown was almost always present on his face.

"Wow..." Lysia said. "So you guys are horders after all..." Amanda was so busy eating chocolaty stuff that she didn't notice Lysia and Kristina climb up the stairs and take a glimpse of the second floor until now. "UNWANTED! UNWANTED!" she yelled, hurrying up the steps and pushing past the two before spreading her arms out and blocking the way. "DO NOT TRESPASS! THIS IS NON-TRESPASSING AREA!"

"Come on, we already know you guys are horders anyway," Lysia said, using the word describing people whose residences are so bunched up with stuff it's almost like an old, messy shop that the owner just decided to abandon one day after ransacking it himself. "I wanna use the computer."

"Then use your own downstairs!" Amanda exclaimed. "Or else I'll get Enki on your faces!"

Lysia shrugged, sighed, and she and Kristina turned and made their way downstairs while Amanda remained where she was.

"Hey, girls," Amanda's grandmother said, emerging from the kitchen. "Who wants some spaghetti?"

"Is there parmesan?" asked Lysia.

"Yes."

"LOTS of parmesan?"

"Yes."

"Alright!" There were murmurings of excitement as Amanda's grandmother went back into the kitchen to get the spaghetti. Amanda snickered lightly to herself, turned then made her way through the second floor to her parents' bedroom. She peeked in through the slightly opened door.

"Oh, hi, Amanda," her mom greeted her from where she was in the corner of the room, leaning down and giving Enki a bowl of water. Enki started lapping at the water.

"Enki got rabies or something?" Amanda asked in an exasperated tone, squinting at her dog.

"He doesn't seem to," her mom replied. "But I don't know why he barked at your friend. He wasn't like that during her last visit. I think she had some meat in her pockets or something. Ask her." "Okay..." Amanda said, closing the door. Why would someone carry around meat in their pockets? Maybe Kristina cuddled a cat or something and got all the fur on her clothes.

For some reason, as she neared the stairs, there was silence. Amanda had expected the sounds of silverware scraping against plates, slight dragging of chairs and of course talking. There was no one stopping those people from talking so much when they could ever since they came together in classes. Knitting her eyebrows together, she descended down the stairs to find...

...No one.

There was no trace that Lysia, Kristina, Athena, Stephen and Carina were there. There weren't plates of spaghetti on the table, only the platters of food, but the platter with the brownies had one bonus one even though Stephen had eaten one. The chairs were in their original places even though Kristina had frantically pulled one out and stayed on top of it to get away from Enki. The pillow on the ground was back on the sofa as if it had never been thrown.

"Uh..." Amanda said. Hmm. Maybe they were playing a trick on her, like they did on her birthday, when they had shown their surprise arrival after Amanda's mom had taken her blindfold off.

She went over to the kitchen, which was strangely silent as well, and opened the door, expecting to find Aaron alongside her grandmother. But she found no one.

Everyone's out to get me, she mentally groaned in her head, closing the door. She went over to the spare room across from where she was standing where there were stuff like an unused fish aquarium (now filled with cockroaches) and her family altar and stepped through the glass-tiled door. There was no one there.

"Ugh, where is everybody?" Amanda exclaimed to herself, despite being the person not always expressing her thoughts out loud. Sighing, she went out of the room, stepped into the hall and closed the door behind her. But then something she saw through the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she whipped her head to the side and saw Lysia.

She wasn't so sure, though. Lysia seemed to know anime-a weebo-and she appeared to be wearing something different from her dress and stockings. She had on something like a red tailcoat over a laced-top white dress with a billowed frilly skirt that went down to two inches below her knees, which were covered by red-and-white high socks and heeled, red boots at the end. On her head were two long authentic white rabbit ears, which were so realistic that Amanda couldn't tell if they were merely part of the costume or real. Amanda of course ended up deciding that they were just props, because there was no way in heck would her friend have white bunny ears.

Lysia whirled around, and Amanda could see that she was holding a rather large pocket watch in her hand, which was covered by a white glove that went down to the mid-wrist and she now had bright red eyes. "Hey, what're you waiting for?" she demanded, tapping a finger on her pocket watch. "You're late! Gosh, hurry up!" And with that she turned and quickly ran down the stairs.

"Lysia?!" Amanda called out, hurrying after her.

"Run faster!" Lysia urged as she leaped down the winding stairs, skipping two or sometimes three staircases at a time. Which made her look more like a rabbit.

"I take it back when I called you a turtle," Amanda said quietly to herself, panting fast as she hurried after Lysia.

For some reason, the stairs seem to go longer than Amanda remembered it to, and it went straight diagonally downwards, not in a circular motion. But Amanda was determined to go after Lysia and start interrogating her-where the rest were, why she was cosplaying as a bunny girl of some sort, and if she needed to go to the mental hospital right now because she was seriously having some hallucinations. Finally, they reached the ground floor, which looked totally normal. Was it her mind playing tricks on her, or did Amanda just see Lysia disappear through the mirror like it was mere water? Wow. Confusion was really not being on her side right now.

She turned around and saw that the stairs had returned to their original state-going downwards in a straight diagonal way for a fifteen-second travel from upstairs to downstairs instead of what seemed like five minutes down the winding stairs before. She wanted to go up there and test it out herself, see if the stairs would change shape again, but she decided to prove if her mirror theory was correct or not, if her friend had disappeared through the large piece of glass by the bathroom.

So Amanda went to stand in front of the mirror and just stared at her reflection. Only it wasn't totally her. She still had her fringe hanging over her eyes and that ponytail, but her second favourite shirt and jeans had been changed to a blue dress with a skirt ending an inch below the knee, a white apron tied around her waist, high blue-and-white striped socks and black shoes. Wow, that was creepy.

The reflection changed into someone else entirely.

It was replaced by a guy with a crazed-ish look. He had messy, black hair (that looked kinda poofy in Amanda's opinion) and black eyes with endless, hypnotizing circles. He wore a long-sleeved shirt with a diamond design in a casino-color-theme (red, black, white), black boots with white heels, and a pair of reddish-blackish-white-ish pants. He wore a long, black cloak over his shoulders.

"Alice... Alice... Alice... No. ...Amanda Toren, I... I long to see... you... So you may die," he chanted in a droning voice. And he started laughing crazily after.

The young man's reflection disappeared.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Lysia was suddenly shouting on her ear from behind. "Get inside!"

Amanda was about to whirl around and talk back at her and start the interrogation, but then before she could even move Lysia had roughly pushed her forward from behind. Amanda expected to have her nose squashed by the huge piece of glass before her, but that never happened.

She fell right through the looking-glass.


	3. II - Caterpillar, Duchess, and Cheshire

**[[RennRaven wrote this]]**

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Amanda fell through the looking-glass. She was falling through a hundred-foot deep hole. On the way down, she saw a lot of furniture flying around. There were chairs, tables, bookshelves, books, chandeliers, a bed, and a piano.

"Ow!" she said as she hit ground. She looked around and saw that she was in a round room with 7 doors. She tried all the doors. The first one didn't work. Neither did the second. Not even the third. The fourth wouldn't budge. The fifth was locked. The sixth wouldn't open. And the seventh was too small for her.

"Who makes such a tiny door?" she muttered. She turned around and saw a table, which wasn't there before, and a key was on it. She grabbed it and tried it on all doors. None worked, except for the seventh. She tried fitting into the tiny door, which was impossible. Out of frustration, she kicked the third door. She went back to the table and saw a bottle, which was never there before, which said the words DRINK ME. She uncorked the bottle and smelled it.

"Ngahh...!" she muttered. 'Smells like poop,' she thought, 'But it's just a dream...'

She drank it up and coughed a few times and she shrunk. Lucky for her, her clothes shrunk too. She walked towards the door; locked. She realized that she forgot the key, and ran back to the table. Amanda jumped, she tried, but she just couldn't get the key since she was too small. She looked down at her feet, and saw a cake that said EAT ME. She ate it, since it was a cake after all, and grew as tall as a tree. She was about 9 feet or so, and she hit her head on the ceiling. She grabbed the key, drank more of that drink that made her shrink, and went back down into the size of a gerbil. She ran towards the door, and unlocked it. When she peeked in, she saw such a curious world filled with giant mushrooms, flowers that talk, little horses that fly, and other strange creatures.

"Who is she?" a red rose said.

"Must be some flower," a daffodil said.

"Flower?" Amanda mumbled.

"Hmph. She must be the ugliest looking flower I have ever seen!" a pink rose said pointing it's leaf towards Amanda, like a hand.

"Never seen a brown flower with hair, though...," a black rose muttered.

"And what's with her face?" a blue flower asked.

"Looks so-"

"SHUT UP!" Amanda screamed interrupting on what the petunia was about to say.

The flowers stared at her and murmured some more. As she walked forward, she encountered a fog of smoke. She coughed a few times and tried fanning away the smoke.

"Who... Are you...?" a female sleepy voice asked.

Amanda looked up to where the voice was and was shocked. She saw a girl with sleepy, gray-ish eyes, and bobbed, blue hair that had a small cowlick going upward. She wore a dark gray coat with dark blue trimmings and an open colar, dark green pants, and a pair of dark blue, buckle-up boots. She was also smoking a bronze colored hookah and was sitting on a mushroom.

"Athena?!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Ah... You know who I am. Now, who...are you...?" Athena, the Blue Caterpillar, asked one more time.

"I'm Amanda, your friend!" Amanda told her.

"Alice, huh? And you are a human too. Interesting...," she said as she blew more smoke to her face. Amanda coughed.

"My name is Amanda, not Alice!" Amanda whined.

"That's what I said, Alice. Now, why are you here?" Athena asked.

"I don't know why. I was pushed by my friend through a mirror and I fell down a hole and ended up here," she answered.

"Do you want to go somewhere?" Athena questioned her.

"I WANT TO GO HOME, DUH!" Amanda shrieked.

Athena frowned. "You know, I'd prefer it if you'd be nicer. But since you'd probably not stay here long alive, I'll still help you."

"Thank God!" Amanda sighed.

"Take a little piece of both sides of this mushroom that I'm sitting on. One side will make you grow, another side will make you shrink," Athena said. Amanda took off some of the left and some of the right. She chose to eat the right one first. She grew bigger, but she was too big, about 10 feet tall. She bit some of the left and got smaller, about 2 feet high. She licked some of the right, and she got back to her normal size. Athena examined her and blew a lot of smoke to her face. Amanda coughed and coughed and she fanned the smoke away. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she transported. She was standing in front of a light purple mansion.

Amanda walked along the path way. She saw topiaries with little purple blossoms, hedges with dark purple roses, bushes with purple lilies, and trees growing little purple flowers. She stood in front of the oak green double doors of the mansion and entered. She was in a hall way with 5 doors. Being the curious Amanda she was, she wandered about looking for anyone who could help her. When she came to the last door, she seemed to be in some sort of throne room.

On the throne-which didn't look much like one-was a woman with silver-ish wavy hair that almost reched her back, with a small black hat with a pink rose and a black and white stripped ribbon on her head, and she had soft, silver eyes. She had a black collar around her neck, wore a black gown with short, puffed sleevs and white frills, and she was wearing black, 1-inched heels. The woman was stroking a purple and black cat which sat on her lap.

'She must really like purple,' Amanda thought. 'But maybe not all that much, since she's wearing black and her mansion is, like, purple, plus that little cat over there.'

The young woman took notice of Amanda and introduced herself. "Hello. My name is Donna McElvanly, and I'm the Duchess. Do you need anything?" Donna motioned Amanda to come forth.

Amanda walked forward, staring at the odd looking purple cat.

"Yes. One, where am I? Two, why am I here? And three, why's that cat purple!?" she said, pointing to the cat.

The Duchess giggled and pinched her cheek. "You're so cute! You are in Wonderland, of course! This cat is purple because it's a Cheshire. And I don't know why you're here." Amanda looked forlorn.

"Oh yeah, and I was pushed through a mirror or something," Amanda said.

"You went here through the looking-glass!? Did you meet a bunny girl or something?" the Duchess asked.

"Yeah!"

"That was the White Rabbit. I wonder why she led you here...," Donna muttered. "Anyway, I have duties to attend to so I will have to go for now." Donna put down her wide-eyed cat, stood up, hiked up her dress, and rushed off. Amanda looked at the purple cat. The cat looked up at her and grinned. Amanda reached her arm over to the cat to pet the cat-but before she can even touch it, the cat disappeared.

"What the-?!" she exclaimed.

Someone reappeared in front of her; a person. Well, it wasn't exactly a person because she had purple-black cat ears, a tail of the same color which swished happily from side to side, and a big grin that couldn't be made by a normal human. She wore a striped, long-sleeved-ish, purple-and-black, dress-like shirt, black pants, a pair of dark blue, buckle-up boots, and fingerless gloves. She also had a dark blue coat tied around he waist.

She had black hair which occasionally has a hint of dark blue tied into a pony tail, and yellowish eyes. A quiver filled with flint-head arrows hung on her shoulder and a polished, brown bow hung across her body.

The most notable thing Amanda saw-besides the cat ears and tail, that is-was the big, black collar around her neck that had another big, golden bell.

"Kristina!" Amanda yelped, about to hug her friend, but she hugged air instead. The cat girl reappeared behind her. Amanda turned around to face her.

"Uh...How do you know my name? Only a few Wonderland people know it...," Kristina said, tilting her head. "Anyway, as you can see I'm the Cheshire Cat. I can disappear and reappear, float in the air, be annoying, blah blah blah. So, what's your name?"

"I'm your friend remember? My name is Amanda!" Amanda said, walking towards her.

"So your name is Alice, you know my name somehow, and you're a human. Interesting...," she muttered and disappeared.

"My name is Amanda, not Alice!" Amanda shrieked.

Kristina reappeared behind her, again, gripping Amanda's shoulders to calm her down. "You better calm down, not much humans survive here in Wonderland you know," Kristina said, "And that's what I said, your name is Alice."

Amanda grumbled and turned around. "Whatever...," she muttered. Kristina began to examine her, still wearing that big grin. "Can you wipe that grin off your face? It's darn right creepy!" Amanda said.

Kristina snickered. "Not as creepy as the Mad Hatter...," she muttered to herself.

"What?"

"Nothing...," Kristina mumbled. "Follow me. I might be able to take you to a person who can answer all your questions." She then rushed off, out of the throne room.

"Wait for me!" Amanda screamed running after her. She ran out the throne room and spotted the cat. Kristina was running out the doors, Amanda followed her. "Where are we going!?" she shrieked. Kristina simply ignored the question. They ran along a stone path way, where Amanda tripped over some bugs. They ran by some houses filled with little animals. They also ran into a turtle where in Kristina simply disappeared in front of it and reappeared 5 feet away, and Amanda tripped over it.

"Stupid turtle," she mumbled.

"Stupid human!" the turtle shouted.

Amanda tried to run after Kristina, but she was too fast. She tried as best as she could, but she lost Kristina. Suddenly she saw a person with cat ears, which she assumed was Kristina, run into a forest and disappear into a purple could. Amanda ran in the forest, but what she didn't know was that it was the darkest forest of all Wonderland; the Wonderland Woods. Amanda just ran, getting scratched once in a while by very sharp trees. She got scratched by a very big tree with large braches and extremely sharp tips. "Argh!" she shouted. She fell down onto her knees and looked at her arm. She saw a very bloody wound with three scratches. She got up and continued to walk. She was having a hard time, and was wondering on how a simple tree could make such a bloody scratch.

"Ahahaha~! A scratch already?" a female voice said beside her. She looked to her right and saw Kristina, grinning like the stupid cat she is.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DISAPPEAR!?" Amanda shouted. Kristina simply shrugged.

"Force of habit...," she responded. She whipped out a blue ribbon, Amanda stared at her. "Here, I'll cover it," she said. Kristina wound the ribbon around her wound and tied it at the end. "Better now?"

"I...I guess so...," Amanda mumbled. "The tree that scratched me, was it poisoned?"

"No, but it's very sharp and it hurts mere humans like you. Don't you know where we are?" Kristina said.

"No idea..."

"We are in the darkest forest of Wonderland, the Wonderland Woods-"

"THEN WHY DID YOU TAKE ME HERE?!" Amanda interrupted.

"This is the only way to reach our destination. Besides, as if I'd let you go around Wonderland ending up in the Queen of Hearts' castle about to have your head chopped off," Kristina told her.

"No other way huh...?" Amanda muttered under her breath.

Kristina nodded. "No other way. Unless you want to be pushed through another mirror...," she said, muttering the last part.

"No more mirrors for me! I got here by being pushed by a bu-" Amanda started but Kristina covered her mouth.

"I heard you the first time, no need to repeat," Kristina said. She looked around, trying to see if anyone was watching them.

"Hrmuuuuhhhmnggmp?!" Amanda muffled.

"I'm sorry, what?" Kristina removed her hand.

"Who are you looking for?" Amanda asked.

"I'm trying to check if anyone is watching us..."

Amanda scoffed. "Who could possibly be watching us?"

Kristina glared at her and crossed her arms. "Oh, I don't know...Green [gummy] bears who eats anyone who passes by, golden lightning dragons, silver iron dragons, red fire dragons, fluffy, white sky dragons, yellow rat-like creatures which harms you with lightning and thunder, or maybe even aggressive Wonderland people perhaps?" she said sarcastically. (She was referring to Pikachu, by the way, when she said, "yellow rat-like creatures." I couldn't think of anything else, I'm sorry.)

Amanda sighed. "Will this wound heal?"

"Yeah, in like about 2 days or so...," Kristina said, mentally counting.

"Anything else I should know?"

"Well, don't run into the Queen of Hearts 'cause she could cut your head off, don't make the Hatter mad or he wouldn't hesitate to slit your throat, beware the Jabberwocky, and don't wander about Wonderland without someone you trust," Kristina said.

"Oh yeah, why do you remind me of someone I know of?" Amanda asked.

"STOP ASKING EVERY LITTLE QUESTION YOU HAVE IN MIND TO ME! I told you, we're going to someone who can answer your questions."

"And who's that?!" Amanda said throwing her hands up.

"You'll figure it out soon..." Kristina said before she disappeared slowly. Legs first, second the body, then her head, and last her grin.

"I've seen Kristina creepy before, but not this way...," Amanda muttered. She began to walk a bit, carelessly. "And I've seen a cat without a grin, but a grin without a cat?" She kicked some stones and stared at little bugs of some sort. She was lost, Kristina left her, and she was being careless.

But what she didn't know was that Kristina was just floating above her, in the sky, unnoticed. Kristina snickered. Just watching Amanda made her want to laugh. She had never seen anyone so careless about such a land, especially since this is Wonderland where anything can happen to anyone. She reappeared in front of Amanda.

"You're so careless...," Kristina mumbled. "Any questions you have in mind?"

"Yeah, I guess...," Amanda replied.

Kristina sighed. "Fine. Then let's go to the Hare and the Hatter, but that's the end of it." And with that she disappeared.

"Why do people have to be so strange here?" Amanda muttered.

"Over here, Alice-girl~!" Kristina exclaimed, being 7 feet away from her.

Amanda ran towards where she was, and followed where ever she was headed to.


	4. III - Mad Tea Party

**[[RoseLocket wrote this]]**

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"Okay, Kristina," Amanda said in an exasperated tone, trudging along the path after the cat girl. "I'm tired, I'm hungry, my wound hurts, and I still need an apology out of you."

"Why do I need to apologize?" Kristina complained, glancing back at her.

"BECAUSE IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT THAT I'M FEELING LIKE THIS SINCE YOU LURED ME INTO THE WOODS!"

"I didn't lure you!" Kristina said. "I said that I was going to lead you to the Hare and the Hatter so that they can sort stuff out for you!"

"Why can't YOU sort it out yourself?"

"As I've said before, you keep on bombarding me with questions!"

"Did you say that?"

"Yes."

"Nah, you're just too lazy to do stuff."

"Am not!"

"ADMIT IT!"

"Marchie, give me that stupid hat!"

Amanda stopped and blinked. "Hey, I don't have a hat," she said. "And why'd you call me Marchie?"

"No, I didn't call you Marchie, and the one who said that is not me. It just means we're nearing our destination."

They came up to an opening in the woods—which Amanda was delighted to see after being engulfed in the darkness of the woods for so long—and they saw not far from them a tea party consisting of a long table with a greyish tattered tablecloth draped over it and lots of stuff for having tea, but there were also some things practically unnecessary such as small hats, hardbound books that looked more like bricks, scissors and ripped up stuffed toys with their stuffing piled around them. There appeared to be three people there—one with her head buried in her arms snoozing away, the other two chasing each other around the table.

"Mine! Mine! Mine! HAHAHAHAHA!" said the one who was being chased, laughing crazily to himself. He had long messy brown hair tied in a loose ponytail down his back with a thin ribbon, and he wore something like a tea-stained coat with several orange tufts of fur on it. Much like Lysia when Amanda last saw her, he had a pair of rabbit ears on his head, only they were furrier and orange. He held a dark hat adorned with faded red roses and a fraction sign that read '10/6' high over his head, which was apparently something he'd snatched forcefully as a joke.

"Give it BACK!" the one chasing him yelled, his hands reached out for the hat. He was a pale person a bit taller than the other one with spiky black hair with bangs hanging over his glasses, his thin figure clad in a collared black button-up coat that went down to below his knees with the last four buttons undone to make it easier to walk on his boots.

Suddenly the girl sleeping with her head in her arms perked up, the look on her face alarmed as if she were sensing danger nearby. She was petite and rather cute, bearing childish features. She wore a light pink dress with short puffed sleeves, and tied around her waist was a frilly apron. She had a hand-sized bow adorning her hair which was in a bob cut, but on it was a pair of chocolate brown mouse ears as authentic as the other animal ears Amanda had seen—on Kristina, on Lysia, and now on the two of the three guests in the tea party.

"CAT!" she exclaimed, but it sounded more like a squeak. She jumped off her seat—which had a hardbound dictionary on it to help her reach the table—and onto the table, her rat-like tail which had a bow near the end swishing from side to side with nervousness.

Her sudden movement was able to attract the attention of the two people running around the table, causing them to stop and look at her. The boy in the dark outfit took advantage of the attention and grabbed the hat from the other person's hands.

"HEY!" the rabbit-eared person said, whirling around in time to have his face meet the sole of the other boy's boot. He collapsed on the ground on his back.

"DON'T STEAL MY HAT!" the black-clad boy yelled, placing the hat on his head, where it seemed to rightfully belong.

"Cat! Cat! Cat!" the mouse girl kept on yelping, pointing at Kristina.

"Cat?" the boy said in confusion, arching an eyebrow as he turned his head to the direction where Amanda and Kristina were hiding but unable to clearly see them, as they were still covered under the darkness of Wonderland Woods.

"What's Jillian doing there?" Amanda asked Kristina, referring to the mouse girl who so resembled a close friend of hers in class. "And..." She squinted. "Stephen and Mark?"

"Let's go, shall we?" Kristina suggested, disappearing in thin air. Then she reappeared behind mouse girl, who yelped and jumped off the table when she yelled, "Boo!"

"Cat!" mouse girl cried.

The boy with the hat who resembled Stephen frowned at Kristina. "What're you doing here, Cheshire cat?" he demanded.

"HEY STEPHEN!" Amanda yelled, emerging from the forest and heading towards the table, waving her hand high over her head. She normally called his name out loud just to annoy him.

The boy turned around and blinked at Amanda. "Who are you?" he questioned.

"Wanna hear me sing a song?" Amanda said, breaking out a grin.

"You didn't answer my—"

"HEY STEPHEN, I KNOW LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING, BUT I KNOW I SAW A LIGHT IN YOU AND AS WE WALKED WE WERE TALKING, I DIDN'T SAY HALF THE THINGS I WANTED TO!" Amanda recited in an off-key singsong voice that sounded more like she was yelling.

Stephen just stared at her with owl eyes like she was the strangest thing he'd ever come across. He turned to Kristina. "You brought along a lunatic?" he muttered.

"That's cold, Hatter," Kristina smirked. "You yourself have to deal with a lunatic every day. That's Alice, and she's a human who happened to just come here."

"Stop calling me Alice!" Amanda cried, getting increasingly annoyed by the name. "I'm AMANDA! A-MAN-DUH! Got it?!"

"Who's a man?" Marchie perked up from the ground, his eyes flashing open as he sat bolt upright.

"DUH!" Amanda finished, grinning at one of her old jokes she'd first shared with Lysia.

"Marchie, this is Alice, a human...weirdo," Stephen said, sitting on the table and crossing his legs as he pushed a few teacups out of the way, causing them to fall to the ground and smash into smithereens. He grabbed another cup and a teapot and poured tea into it. "Alice, this is Marchie the Hare. Please stay away from him while you can so as to stay alive."

"Why're you here?" the mouse girl asked Amanda, popping up from under the table out of the blue.

"Ask the cat!" Amanda said.

"Oh, and by the way, this is Jillian the Dormouse," Stephen said, moving his leg in a backward motion so he was forcefully pushing Jillian back under the table while she said, 'ow' in every kick of his boot.

"Yeah, and you're the Hatter, huh, Stephen?" Amanda said.

Stephen blinked, then turned to Kristina. "Why are you two here?" he demanded, grabbing her by the throat and pulling her over, narrowing his eyes behind his rectangular-shaped lenses. "You stupid cat!"

"Not the middle!" Kristina choked, trying to pull out of Stephen's grip, but apparently he was a bit angry right now. "It's like you're spearing the entire throat, and I can't speak!"

"You're speaking right now."

"Just let go!"

Stephen grunted, then released Kristina, who disappeared then reappeared a prudent distance away from him. "Don't do that," she muttered, rubbing her throat.

Hatter simply smirked, then grabbed about five sugar cubes from an open pot. He held them over the teacup. "You're—" _Plop!_ "—not—" _Plop! _"—answering—" _Plop!_ "—the—" _Plop!_ "—question." _Plop!_ He looked up at Amanda from under the brim of his hat, as if expecting her to explain.

Amanda huffed. "Hey, Kristina said you could explain stuff to me! Where I am, why people are strange, and—" Talking about her purpose in this place brought something to her mind. She turned to Marchie, who was eating some leaves from the ground and muttering to himself with a crazed smile on his face. She nudged him on the arm with her foot. "Hey, hare guy!"

"Wha—?!" Marchie said, looking up at her with his mouth full of soil.

"I said to get away from him," Stephen reminded her with a very slight singsong tone to his voice, mixing his tea. Jillian appeared from under the table and nodded her head in agreement before disappearing back under the tablecloth, probably to take a sleep, as she was the Dormouse. Amanda however ignored him.

"You know someone called Lysia?" Amanda asked Marchie.

"Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?" Marchie asked all at once.

Amanda sighed. "A bunny girl, you know, like you...?"

"Well excuse me!" Marchie got up from the ground and put his hands on his hips. "I am not a bunny! I am a long-eared dog! No, wait, I'm a piece of hair! A toothbrush! Did I get it right?" He turned to Stephen.

"No," Stephen simply replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah! Now if you'll excuse me..." Marchie dropped back on the ground as if he had just intentionally slipped on a banana peel and began gnawing on a piece of grass. Amanda stepped away from him warily.

"Asking him questions is useless," Stephen said. Jillian the Dormouse reappeared from under the table, nodded her head, then disappeared back in even before she even caught Stephen shooting her a brief glare. "Now what were you saying about a bunny girl?" He took a sip from his teacup.

"I'm looking for my friend Lysia, who so happens to have white bunny ears like him..." Amanda glanced at the March Hare.

"Okay, first of all, rabbits and hares are different," Stephen explained. "And second of all, the March Hare and the White Rabbit aren't related or anything, if you're thinking that way."

Jillian crawled out from under the table and started nodding in agreement until Stephen threw a teacup her way. She dodged by an inch. "STOP DOING THAT!" he yelled. "IT'S CREEPY!"

The Dormouse responded by giggling quietly under the table.

"Anyway, Hatter," Kristina said, materializing beside Stephen out of the blue, like she always did here in 'Wonderland.' "Why don't you explain to Alice here about the looking-glass?"

"Oh, the looking-glass," Stephen said. "It's some kind of passageway between two worlds of some sort. One is here, Wonderland, and the other is something...slightly different."

"You mean my world?" Amanda asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Might be, since you're a human," Stephen said. "It's a world of humans like you."

"Where's the looking-glass, then?"

"Oh, it's under the possession of the Queen of Hearts," Stephen replied, wiping the sugar around his mouth. "It'll be suicide trying to get to it."

"Who the hell's the Queen of Hearts? The leader of this crazy place?"

"Yup."

"She's not gonna give into your request easily," Kristina said, grinning. "So I guess you're staying here for all eternity."

"What?! No! That can't happen! I can't stay here!"

"Well then go make yourself a hobo in the woods and wait for some dragon to come eat you," Stephen suggested in a blunt and nonchalant manner.

"Hey, Steph, don't be so mean to her," Kristina taunted.

Stephen's eye twitched, then he turned and snatched Kristina's glasses right off the bridge of her nose, much to her surprise. She made a wild grab for it, but he managed to keep her away. He dropped the piece of eyewear on the ground, raised his boot and smashed it.

"What the—?!" Amanda shrieked. "Hey, Stephen, don't you remember that Kristina's blind without her glasses?"

"I don't care," Stephen simply said.

"Um...ah...can't see..." Kristina muttered, feeling around blindly.

Amanda walked over to her and waved a hand in front of her face. "HELLO? CAN YOU STILL SEE?" she asked loudly.

Kristina blinked. "Uh...are you Jillian or Alice...?"

"Amanda."

"Oh, hi Alice."

Amanda groaned and her hands flew up to her head. "Can you just stop calling me Alice? It's annoying."

"But it's your name," Stephen retorted, hastily thrusting another pair of spectacles—one with huge one-inch lenses that made it look ridiculous, probably one of the random stuff he found on the table—to Kristina, who took it and wore it.

"It's A-MAN-DUH!"

"Get a haircut."

"Fine! Maybe I will!" Amanda said in frustration. "Thanks for the help, guys!"

She began to turn and walk away when she heard a powerful voice in the distance closing in on the place yelling out:

"OFF WITH THE HUMAN'S HEEEEEAAAAAAAAD!"

Stephen swore under his breath at the sound of the voice. He threw his teacup behind him, causing it to smash into smithereens on the table and the tea to stain the tablecloth, and got on his feet. "Jillian!"

Jillian scampered out from under the table. "What's up?" she asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"The Queen's coming over!" Stephen told her. "She must've smelled a human in here."

"What? The Queen?!" Jillian exclaimed, something like a switch turning on inside her. Out of nowhere she took out two weapons in her hands.

"Why the hell does Jillian have knives?!" Amanda shrieked.

"They're two blades from a pair of scissors," Stephen said.

"GIANT scissors," Kristina corrected, appearing to be able to see more clearly through her ridiculous eyewear.

"Whatever!" Stephen threw his hands over his head. "Jillian, act natural. Cat, go away. Alice, go with the cat."

"What?!" Amanda shrieked as Stephen bent over and started dragging Marchie by his ankles to the tea table while he was still gnawing on the piece of grass.

"Just hurry up before the Queen gets here!" Stephen snapped, setting Marchie up in a slack sitting position on the chair. "If you don't we'll all get our heads rolling."

"FIND HER! FIND HER AT ALL COSTS!" the voice kept shrieking, nearing them.

"Crap," both Stephen and Kristina said in unison.

Stephen hurried over to the head of the table, sat down and threw a black tea pot at Kristina, who caught it with ease. She took off the lid and threw the tea over Amanda.

"What the hell?!" Amanda shrieked, dripping with the liquid.

Kristina went over and picked her up in her hands. It was easy for her, because Amanda had suddenly shrunk to the size of a hamster along with her clothes, thankfully. She went over to sit across from Jillian—who no longer felt uncomfortable around her, since she seemed wide-awake now—and dropped Amanda in a teapot.

When the lid closed above her, Amanda stood up and started fruitlessly banging her teeny-tiny hands on the ceramic walls around her. "LEMME OUTTA HERE!" she shrieked, but she merely sounded squeaky like that of a real hamster.

"Here comes the Queen," Kristina muttered, bringing the teapot over to Stephen. "Make sure she doesn't get to Alice." Then she disappeared.

"Why am I always the one left to do stuff?" Stephen murmured, setting the teapot on the table.

"YOU WERE ALWAYS LAZY WITH YOUR HOMEWORK, ANYWAY!" Amanda shrieked at him from inside the teapot.


	5. IV Strawberry Tarts

**[[RennRaven wrote this]]**

**WARNING: May contain content about a big fat Knave. Make sure you are alone in a room so that when you encounter him in this chapter, you can laugh as much as you want without people thinking you are weird. XP**

Amanda grumbled. She liked being in a teapot as much as she liked having dyslexia. Which means, she hates being in a teapot. 'Who the hell puts someone into a teapot anyway?' she thought.

"How did the Queen of Hearts know Alice is here?" Jillan asked in a whisper.

"The horses that act like dogs, remember?" Stephen replied. Jillan thought for a minute and remembered about those horses.

"Ah, well, if it isn't the Hare, the Hatter, and the Dormouse," a deep voice said behind them. They looked at the direction of the voice and saw Johann, the **really** fat Knave of Hearts. He's so fat that his armor can barely fit his butt. All he ever does is eat, eat, and eat. How he was hired for the job, the Queen must've been drunk. He had long, shiny, black hair and was clad in a black armor with a heart stitched at the upper left corner of the chest plate and was holding a black shadow sword.

A woman stepped out of a red carriage in the shape of a heart and walked beside the Knave. She had sandy brown hair, a little golden crown with shiny red rubies in the shape of hearts adorned her head, she was wearing a short, golden, poofy gown with black laces, a black belt, puffed sleeves and red hearts decorated it, and she wore dark red lipstick. She was also holding a golden staff with a heart at the top of it. It was the Queen of Hearts: Jesice.

"Hello, Knave," the Hatter replied coldly.

"Have you seen a human around here?" The Knave said. At the mention of the word '_human_', a girl with a red tailcoat and a white dress with a frilly skit and laced-up top, flinched. It was Lysia, the one who led Amanda to Wonderland.

"My Frog Footmen smelled the scent of human on the Duchess. Now she is in prison...again. And my horses have caught the scent around here," the Queen said.

"I've seen the human! She was wearing a ponytail, blabbering, and roaming around here somewhere," Jillan blurted out, accidentally. She covered her mouth instantly after saying this.

Stephen was shocked. Amanda, still in the teapot, stopped breathing for a split second. Kristina reappeared across Jillan with her eyes wide open in shock.

"Jillan..." Kristina muttered, giving a tiny piece of clothing she made to Stephen. "Give this to Alice," she whispered. Stephen took it and placed it in the teapot. Amanda looked at it, and got mortified. It was a purple dress. The dress had a white belt with a black rose, a black, veritcal stripe on the chest, a pleated skirt with purple hearts and diamonds and black spades and clovers, and loose, black sleeves, and it also came with a choker.

'What the—?! I got a dress?! A DRESS! Of all things, I got a dress!' Amanda thought.

"Ah, yes, the Cheshire cat. So you're the Duchess' cat, eh? To admit it, she wasn't a very good servant of mine—had to be thrown to jail often, she built her own territory without my permission and saw a human without telling me about it," the Queen said.

The Knave of Hearts walked towards Jillan. "Dormouse, you will have to be taken away and are to be interrogated about the information of this...human," the Knave said, grabbing her wrists and chaining them with rusty hand cuffs. The Knave let go of her. Ten red, rectangular Card Guards with different numbers on each corner of its body surrounded her and led her away. The Knave led the Card Guards, and the Queen of Hearts returned to her carriage and the horses dragged her away.

Kristina and Stephen were frozen in shock of what Jillan had said earlier. As for the Hare, well, he was chewing on a stick covered in mud and leaves rather vigorously.

Stephen opened the light green colored teapot and took Amanda—who was currently whining—out.

"Who the heck stuffs someone into a teapot?!" Amanda yelled, still sounding like a tiny hamster.

"It was the only way to hide you. Besides, we have bigger problems. We need to get Jillan back," Kristina said, being able to hear her unlike Stephen, because of her cat ears.

"AND WHY'D YOU GUYS GIVE ME A DRESS?!" Amanda whined, pointing at what she was wearing.

Kristina snickered behind the palm of her hand. "If you didn't like it, then why'd you wear it? Anyway, eat this," Kristina said. At the palm of her hand was a big round cookie with purple frosting and red engravings which said EAT ME. Framing the cookie were multicolored gumdrops forming a pattern: Red, yellow, blue, orange, green, and violet. Amanda glanced at it for a second, took it, and munched on it. She ate it quickly, even though the cookie was twice as her size. Being the Amanda she was, she was able to eat the entire half of the cookie for only half a minute. She was very tall now, about 6 foot tall, taller than Stephen, nearly as tall as the tress surrounding them. Lucky for her, the purple dress—which she didn't like that all much—grew with her.

"What the hell...? You ate half of the cookie for half a minute even though when you ate it, it was twice as your size?!" Kristina exclaimed.

"I like cookies...," Amanda said. "Now I'm so tall. Do you have any of that drink that made me shrink?"

They—being Stephen and Kristina, since Marchie was busy prancing around holding an orange leaf he found—shook their heads 'no.'

"You should know better than to eat _half a cookie_ which says to eat it. You wouldn't know if someone was tricking you into poisoning yourself," Kristina said.

"You want to poison me?!" Amanda exclaimed.

"No. I'm just reminding you. Just _don't _eat random cookies from people you don't know, okay?" Kristina reminded her.

"Cookie...," Amanda muttered.

Stephen remained silent, listening to their conversation, deep in thought.

Kristina went silent too, until she spoke. "Let's get Jillan back." She rushed off, into the woods, following the Queen of Hearts and the Knave of Hearts. The other two followed her after a few moments of hesitation.

They ran through thickets, branches, giant tree roots, little uphill slopes, and a lake which Amanda nearly fell into. When they reached the ten Card Guards who surrounded Jillan, Kristina kicked at them with her dark blue boot—which Amanda never noticed before. She tried getting to Jillan, but the other Card Guards were squishing Jillan and there was no space for Kristina to reappear in. And the Card Guards were in her way, trying to hit her, but they couldn't since she either dodged them or disappeared.

Stephen saw at the corner of his eye that the Knave was about to attack him. He kicked at the Knave's chest and he fell to the ground. The Knave tried getting back up, but he couldn't since Stephen was pinning him down with his boot.

Kristina gave up with kicking the Card Guards. She looked at her dull nails—which were cut due to the Duchess' neat freakness—and started to slash at the Card Guards. After only two Card Guards were bloodied and poorly cut up, she gave up and just jumped over them to get to Jillan. She grabbed her and ran away, Stephen following close behind.

Amanda—who was just standing in front of this madness and didn't notice Stephen and the others leave—got hit on the head by the Knave and fell down. The Knave grabbed her by the neck and took off, without anyone noticing. He rushed off towards the Queen's castle, which wasn't that far beyond anymore, Amanda being held by him at her neck.

"LET GO OF ME, YOU FATSO!" Amanda shrieked.

"Stop whining, you baby!" the Knave replied.

Johann dragged her to the Queen of Hearts' castle, where he assumed will be the place where Amanda's head will be chopped off.

When they arrived at the castle, Amanda looked around. There were shrubs with red roses, trees with red roses and some had little white borders, topiaries in the shape of hearts, and croquet equipment in one part of the garden. The Knave dragged her along the hallways and they ended up in a throne room. The Queen of Hearts was there, on the red and black heart-shaped throne, sitting dully.

"Ah, Johann. And what brings you here, hm?" the Queen asked.

"I've captured one of the Hatter's comrades," the Knave of Hearts said.

"Is that so? Ho

w did you find her?" the Queen said, examining Amanda. Amanda was staring straight above the Queen's head, unfocused. "Well, she seems innocent enough not to go to jail. Let her stay here... Now, leave."

The (big fat) Knave nodded in response and let go of Amanda. Amanda stumbled forward. The Knave of Hearts rushed off out of the room, probably to eat random food that he finds just like what he always does. He once finished the entire stock of raspberry cupcakes, but the Queen didn't mind since he was never caught.

"State your name," the Queen said.

"Eh...m...," Amanda stuttered.

"Ehm?" the Queen repeated.

Amanda nearly laughed, but kept her position. She thought for a while. '_Hmm... If I say Amanda, she'll call me Alice too! Hmm...Alice...A~~Li~~Ce...,' _she thought.

"Uhhh My name is Ecila," Amanda responded, saying the backwards version of the name _Alice_.

"Strange name for a _strangely_ tall girl," the Queen muttered. "Very well... Come here," she commanded. Amanda hesitated for a moment. Then she saw two rabbits carrying a cushion a golden, steel stool. "Sit," the Queen commanded once more. Amanda sat down on the stool and the rabbits winced at her weight. Silence followed after that.

Kristina was running, Jillan at her side, and Stephen a few feet behind her. When Kristina noticed something, she came to an abrupt stop. Stephen, who wasn't focusing on what was in front of him, ran into Kristina.

"ARRGHH! Don't just stop like that!" he yelled.

"GAAAHHH!" Kristina yelped, being pushed down by Stephen, her under him. She clawed the dirt. "Get off me," she muttered.

Stephen stood up slowly, but Kristina remained where she was but sat up. Jillan was panting, bending down onto her knees.

"Why'd you stop, Kristie?" Jillan asked. Kristina's eye twitched at that nickname.

Kristina breathed in, and breathed out. "Where's Alice?" she asked. Jillan's eyes widened, Stephen remained with a blank expression.

Stephen swore under his breath. "Stupid Knave, he got away from me and took her without me noticing. How can I be so darn?"

"Because you're the darnest Hatter ever," Kristina said, standing up.

"And you're the darnest cat ever!" Stephen exclaimed, whacking her on the forehead. Kristina snickered.

"Guys, how do we get Alice back? They could be tormenting her!" Jillan said.

"_Or_ the Queen was dumb enough to think she wasn't human because of her height and her clothes," Kristina mumbled.

Stephen began walking back to his tea table. He sat down on his armchair and sipped some tea nonchalantly. He looked like as if he didn't care at all that Amanda was gone, which was partially true. Kristina grumbled and disappeared into a cloud of purple dust, and Jillan ran back to the tea table.

"I'm pretty sure the Queen couldn't figure out that Alice is a human," Stephen said, stirring his tea cup.

"How are you so sure about that? She has Frog Footmen who can smell the scent!" Jillan interjected.

"Yes, but Alice's clothes don't have the scent of human, do they?"

"I suppose not..."

"WAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!" the Hare laughed. He was searching around the mud and found an oak green stick with a red leaf in the shape of a spade, which, being the Hare, amazed him. He began chewing on it rather vigorously, and pranced around the tea table while at it. Stephen was annoyed by this, and Jillan scooted her chair towards the table warily.

"I think he needs to go to the Mental Hospital," Jillan mumbled.

Stephen scowled. He had the strangest feeling that something—or _someone_—would appear any moment. And he was right about it, Kristina appeared right in front of him. She was on the table, grinning like always, and was leaning down on him. Stephen leaned onto his chair as soon as she appeared, clutching his teacup, wearing an annoyed look.

"Hey Steph!" Kristina said cheerfully.

"Call me that one more time and I'll kill you," Stephen grumbled.

Kristina leaned back. "Well, anyway, I found where Alice is! She's in the Queen's throne room. Apparently, the Queen was stupid enough to think that Alice wasn't human and that her name was _Ecila."_

"Ecila?" Jillan asked.

"It's backwards for Alice," Kristina said, facing Jillan. "Let's go to the Queen's castle!"

Stephen did not hesitate. He stood up, grabbed Jillan, pushed her forwards so Jillan will be ahead of them, and they were off. Well, Stephen and Jillan were the ones walking and Kristina disappeared once in a while to go who knows where.

They passed through thickets, oak trees, tree roots, and slopes. When they arrived, they sneaked in through the back, where the Queen plays croquet. They went into the blood red, heart-shaped doors, being as quiet as a mouse, and tried to find a place where Kristina could lead Amanda to.

"Make sure you get here," Stephen said sternly.

Kristina nodded and disappeared into thin air. She transported and reappeared in front of the dark doors of the throne room. She opened the door and bit and peeked in and saw the Queen of Hearts, speaking to the Knave.

"Have you seen the human yet?" the Queen asked.

"No, not yet. But we do have someone who could sort of help us," the Knave responded.

"And who is that?"

"The Hare's brother, Mark."

"Ah yes, the March Hare's brother. But you do know that he is a bit insane, right?"

"Who cares? He stalks Wonderland, he could help."

"Alright. Bring him!"

Kristina disappeared, just in time for the Card Guards to open the doors, revealing a chained, yellow Hare wearing a mud-stained, raggedy, blue suit with the two buttons at the top unbuttoned and a withered, brown tailcoat.

"Have you seen the human?" the Queen asked.

"No, I haven't. I've been spending time in the out-lands," the Hare's brother replied.

"LIAR! OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!" the Queen said, standing up. Amanda looked at the Hare, and got reminded of Marchie.

'_This is the Hare's brother? I was expecting him to be...insane,_' she thought.

When the Card Guards took the March Hare's brother away, the Queen began blabbering about a tea party.

"You must join us for tea. We will have Darjeeling, Jasmine tea, Green tea, and maybe even Milk tea... You better get dressed. Now go get dressed!" the Queen commanded. Amanda stood up and left the throne room, not on her way to where she could dress up, but just to roam around the castle and explore.

She was walking along a hallway filled with statues of people suffering, when Kristina appeared right in front of her. Kristina waved her hand.

"Follow me, Alice!" Kristina said, rushing off to the next corridor.

"Stop calling me Alice!" Amanda whined.

"It's your name, don't complain"

"It's not my name, Amanda's my name!"

"Exactly! Your name is Alice! Now, shut up and follow!" Kristina said, turning left then right. Amanda followed her and saw that Kristina went down some steps of a grand staircase. Kristina turned right, right again, then left.

'_How on Earth does Kristina know this place?!_' Amanda thought. She kept following Kristina, walking past some pictures of the Queen playing croquet or the Queen in an execution court, and ended up in front of Jillan and Stephen. Kristina was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Kristina?" Amanda asked.

"How should I know. She was with you," Stephen replied.

Kristina appeared right in between Stephen and Jillan. She was grinning, like always.

"Let's go! We have to go! We have to leave! The Queen can't catch us here!" Kristina said quickly, pushing them all forward and out the dark red, heart-shaped double doors. They were walking as fast as they can, sort of sprinting. They began to run, trying to get as far away as possible. Amanda—out of the corner of her eyes—saw the Duchess, walking calmly away from the castle. The Duchess heard footsteps and looked to her left, she saw Kristina.

"Cheshire!" the Duchess exclaimed.

They all looked to their right and saw the Duchess, and tried to catch up with her, to blend in.

"How'd you escape?" Kristina asked.

"There were hay sticks in my cell which were thick enough to be lock picks. It happens every time!" the Duchess said.

They were not aware of who was watching them, eating a strawberry tart. It was the Knave of Hearts, just watching them, too lazy to catch them since he was eating...a strawberry tart. After he ate the last bite of his tart—which he found sitting on the kitchen table, unattended—and he ran to the Queen. But it was hard, especially since he just ate 13 of those delicious tarts. He burst into the throne room, wiping the last few crumbs off his face.

"Your Majesty! I HAVE EATEN ZE TARTS—I mean, there was a break out, and the girl named Ecila escaped!"


	6. V - Oh So Many Arrows

**[[RoseLocket wrote this]]**

* * *

Yeah, look at them. Running through the woods, chased by dangerous creatures with sharp pointy stuff, on a race for their lives...hey, this ain't Twilight! Back to the story!

"Uh...hey, Stephen, can you pick her up?" Kristina asked, appearing beside Stephen, floating in the air which Amanda thought was unfair, seeing as she was getting scratched by the tree branches here and her feet were beginning to ache.

"What?" Stephen snapped, annoyed.

"Her," Kristina said, pointing at something lying a few yards away.

Stephen and Amanda stopped on their tracks and looked back to see a girl with mouse ears curled up on the ground, snoozing away contentedly as if the hard, moss-covered ground were the softest pillow on Earth. The Card Soldiers meanwhile were quickly closing in.

"We'll have to get her again," Kristina muttered.

Stephen cursed under his breath before hurrying over, picking up Jillian with a little difficulty and racing off with Amanda in his trail.

After a while, they seemed to have lost their pursuers, which was good since they were getting tired, and Jillian felt like she weighed a ton. They came upon a small clearing surrounded by trees and stopped to rest. Stephen slumped Jillian down on the ground and sat down, and so did Amanda. Kristina appeared sitting cross-legged next to them.

"So—" Kristina began.

SMACK!

"Stupid cat!" Stephen hissed as Kristina rubbed the back of her head where she was hit. "Just disappearing when you can just carry Jillian yourself!"

"Sorry, but I can't do that! I have limitations when it comes to speed-flying!" Kristina said.

"Do you guys have food?" Amanda panted.

"We've got them surrounded!"

Upon hearing the voice, everybody froze and stopped breathing—except for Jillian, who was still dozing away peacefully—as Card Soldiers appeared in all directions, cornering them. Their spears glistened sharp, and they snickered as they began to close in while the four—one of them being dragged—backed up to the middle of the small clearing. A person waddled over to the front—the Knave, with his ever-so-fat stomach jiggling as he walked from his recent snack of tarts.

"Nowhere to run now," he sneered. Then he stabbed a finger in their direction. "Get them!"

The Card Soldiers raised their spears and nets as they charged at them from four directions, leaving them no other place to run.

Just then, smoke appeared rolling out of nowhere, drawing a circular foggy shield around the four of them and engulfing them in it. Amanda, Kristina and Stephen coughed and tried to fan the smoke away. Amanda remembered encountering a situation like this when she first came into this crazy place...

They heard some muffled screams outside of the smoke, and the Knave yelling out, "Retreat! RETREAT! I HAVE A HOTDOG I WANT TO EAT AT HOME!" After that were desperate footsteps hurrying to escape the clearing, some scrapings even heard when their spears dragged their sharp edges along the ground.

When the smoke cleared, the Card Soldiers and the Knave were merely the size of small action figures, those ones made of clay. They actually looked kind of funny scurrying away like mice being chased by a cat.

Amanda saw a shadow of something large hovering just a few inches above her head, and she whirled around to see a figure of a girl in navy blue robes with her legs wrapped up in a tail like that of a mermaid without the fins, smoking a hookah while sitting on a large mushroom.

"Athena!" she exclaimed.

"The Caterpillar?" Kristina said in confusion as she and Stephen turned to see the person who had so suddenly appeared out of the blue.

"Hello," Athena said.

"What happened?" Stephen asked.

"I can control what my smoke can do to others," Athena explained. "It can protect, or repel, or do both simultaneously. It just serves me. I was here the whole time, taking the scene under supervision and putting more effects on my invisibility so that you won't even _feel_ my presence unless I want you to. The smoke gave the Card Soldiers an illusion of a fire-breathing dragon with metal, unbreakable scales, and thus they did the most normal thing they could do—run. It was quite amusing to see, actually." Athena chuckled.

"Uh, thanks, Athena," Amanda said.

"If you want, you may all camp out here for the meantime," Athena said. She took her hookah off and blew a huge cloud of smoke at them, causing them to cough and wave their hands in front of their faces again. When the smoke cleared, Amanda had a warm coat on—and amazingly she'd shrunk down to her normal height, which she was thankful for, a blanket was draped on Jillian who had her head leaning on a soft pillow, a sleeping bag was slung over Stephen's shoulder and three more sleeping bags and a tent appeared in Kristina's arms, who immediately began to struggle under the weight of so many things when she realized what happened.

"ARGH! Seriously, Athena?!" Kristina yelped, almost dropping the baggage.

Amanda, Stephen and Athena chuckled. Amanda turned to Athena. "Uh, can I ask: why did you give me a coat?" she asked.

"Oh, because I just predicted that the weather might get a little chilly soon," Athena said, smiling.

"What?"

As if on cue, a huge blanket of whiteness which seemed to spread as wide as a whole country fell with a humungous thud like the world's biggest pillow being dropped to the ground. The impact was only a bit hard, but it sure did surprise everyone except Jillian—who was still asleep—and Athena—who appeared to have an invisible force field around her or something that kept her from being covered by the white stuff. Amanda, Stephen and Kristina meanwhile ended up being live snowmen, frozen in surprise.

Then Amanda shook the white stuff off her like a dog and glared up at Athena as white flakes began to fall from the sky. "Really?!" she shrieked, spewing cold stuff out of her mouth.

Kristina dropped the baggage with a loud groan and vigorously shook the white stuff off of her in the same manner as Amanda did. "You should've just told us about this!" she yelled up at the Caterpillar, who simply snickered under her breath.

Stephen spit stuff out of his mouth and dusted himself off, including the top hat. "Snow..." he said, looking around.

He was right. It was snowing. It seemed like the environment around them had suddenly changed into a wintry forest, like in the North Pole, only with mushrooms and huge flowers still talking to one another, a few actually dancing on their roots as the snowflakes fell.

"I always liked snow," Athena said, holding a hand out to let a snowflake land on it. Unlike those ones back in the real world, it didn't melt. It just stood there on its Q-tips, looking pretty on her palm. "It's pretty agreeable until you find out how cold it is—for you humans, that is."

Something about the white color brought something into Amanda's mind—Lysia, who had magically turned into the White Rabbit all of a sudden. Then she remembered about the looking-glass, about how the Queen policed it. She faced Athena and asked her, "Hey, Athena, you know about something called the looking-glass and how I can get to it?"

"Looking-glass, looking-glass..." Athena appeared to be thinking. "Why would you want to know about that? To be able to go back to your world?"

"Duh."

"The looking-glass is a complicated way to travel between two mirrored worlds. The travel is smooth and quick, but it often leaves the traveler in a different state than the original one. For example, if a human like you were to use it, you'll come back to your world bearing cat ears and a tail."

"Like me!"

"Shut up, Kristina!"

Athena cleared her throat after Amanda had spoken. "Anyways, the looking-glass can only be available for use once you get through the Queen of Hearts, Jesice."

"Can you help us get to her?" Kristina asked.

"Sorry, but, like all the other magic-wielders, my magic has limitations," Athena replied apologetically.

"Poopoo," Amanda muttered.

"Her Majesty the Queen has an order for you, White Rabbit," the Knave said as he finally managed to approach Lysia, who was leisurely reading a book while munching on a cookie. She'd seen the Knave attempting to get to her out the open doorway, but she didn't mind him mostly because he was an idiot anyway who'd been hired while the Queen was tricked into drinking liquor by her especially. A maid had passed the Knave who was breathlessly trying to drag himself across the floor and closed the door behind her, thus making the travel of the poor fat knight more challenging. Darn, he shouldn't have eaten that many hotdogs...

"Why am I _always _being the one ordered?" Lysia said stubbornly, flipping a page and not looking up. "How'd I get hired here, anyway?"

"Uh, because we took down your village and killed all the inhabitants," the Knave replied.

**-FLASHBACK-**

_"Serve me or die," the Queen of Hearts said, looking down her nose on the rabbit-eared girl who was sitting on a cushioned stool eating a carrot stick. Apparently she was the only rabbit left in her village, which was destroyed by the Card Soldiers, but she was also oblivious to the fact that she was the last rabbit alive in the area._

_ "Uh, why?"_

_ "BECAUSE I SAID SO! Serve me or die."_

_ "Uh..."_

_ "You'll get this cute costume and a pocketwatch if you serve me." The Queen held up a white and red dress that looked really cute indeed and with her other hand showed her a shiny pocketwatch._

_ "DEAL!"_

**-END OF FLASHBACK-**

"So what's the order?" Lysia asked.

"She has asked you to search for the human with your distinct rabbit-like sense of smell and hearing," the Knave replied.

Lysia sniffed. "How rude."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, and you'll also have to search for the criminal, Wilfre," the Knave said. "He's a widely-known criminal in Wonderland, and both Her Majesty and the White Queen seek for his arrest—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, he stole the Vorpal something from the White Queen and also another Vorpal something from the Queen of Hearts, yadda, yadda," Lysia said dismissively. "Anyways, I've gotta go now and do whatever the hell that woman wants me to do." She jumped off the chair she was sitting on and hopped out the back door.

The Knave's stomach grumbled, and he went over to the pantry closet and opened it, expecting to find a large stack of carrot cakes. Instead he found dust.

"WHITE RAAAAABBIIIIIIIIIIT!"

_ "Just so you'd know, Cheshire cat," Athena had said, "you have been granted advanced archery skills and ice sculpting magic as thanks for being my torture marionette during your time in the forest." A smile crawled up her lips._

_ "Advanced archery skills? Well, then that was a waste of time trying to fulfil my destiny to become a great archer when in the end I just get them for free anyway," Kristina had responded._

_ "Well that's just wonderful," Stephen muttered._

_ "You're just jealous," Kristina taunted._

_ "Why would I be jealous when I never paid interest to archery?"_

_ "Hey!"_

_ "You must seek the White Queen's help," Athena continued as if they weren't arguing at all. "She might be able to do something to help Alice go home."_

_ "At least 'Alice' isn't as stereotypical as 'Amanda,'" Amanda muttered, thinking of the stories she'd read with the mean, popular girl who gets defeated in the end being named Amanda._

_ "Oh, and I should warn you about Wilfre," Athena added._

_ "What?"_

_ "Ciao." Then the Caterpillar disappeared in a cloud of smoke._

Kristina reached her left hand to her back and grabbed her beloved bow from her quiver. She then grabbed one arrow using her right hand and positioned it to her precious bow. She aimed at one of the Card Guards standing in front of the crystal gates.

_Zip!_

"GUWAHAA!" the Card Guard, number 10, yelled. He fell onto his knees and fell unconscious.

"Hey you! You're in _big_ trouble, person with cat ears!" the Card Guard beside number 10 yelled.

"Uh oh..." Kristina muttered.

"Stupid cat, at least try to blend in your surroundings like a real archer instead of just exposing yourself like that," Stephen muttered.

"Hey!" She shot down the Card Guard who was making its way to her. More Guards were coming in their way. "Okay, I'll try out my ice powers."

"You have ice powers?" Stephen said. "Hey, that's so unf—"

"You're half-deaf," Amanda told him.

"Shut up!"

Kristina held out her hand and concentrated, but nothing came out. Amanda and Stephen just looked at her hand, waiting for something to happen, but no ice emerged from anywhere. She might as well have been fruitlessly holding her palm out against the approaching Card Guards.

"Athena lied!" Kristina yelled. "Darn it!"

"Uh, she _did_ say something about you needing—" Amanda began.

"Whatever!" Kristina got more arrows from her quiver and started shooting at the Card Guards at high speed, but more of them just kept going out.

"And I thought you played with weapons," Amanda said to Stephen like a mom (a selfish one) disappointed in her (adopted, absolutely unrelated) son.

"They're at my house, don't blame me! Marchie might as well be using them to a disadvantage at this moment!" Stephen hissed.

**-IN THE TEA PARTY-**

Jillian trudged out from the woods back into the tea party and saw the March Hare doing something with his back facing her, sitting Indian style on the ground, humming the tune of the Nyan cat song (A/N by RoseLocket: RennRaven, YOUR COUSIN HAS A FREAKING RAINBOW COMIING OUT OF ITS _!).

"Uh...what are you doing?" Jillian asked, approaching Marchie but keeping a prudent distance away.

"So fantastic, right?!" Marchie shrieked, whirling around and showing Jillian a hideous, hot pink sweater with a big, yellow sun cartoon in the middle of it that he'd been knitting on.

"Who's that for?"

"Stephanie, of course!" Marchie yelled. "Now try it on!" He then forced the piece of clothing over Jillian's head, and the end of the shirt reached to her knees. "Awesome, right?!"

"Yeah, awesome..." Jillian hastily took off the sweater, turned and dove right under the table as Marchie began yodeling and eating sticks.

**-BACK TO THE WHITE PALACE—**

"Guys, I'm not going to put this defense up for long," Kristina said, increasingly getting tired as she shot more and more Card Guards.

"I've got an idea," Amanda said.

"What is it now?" Stephen groaned.

"Athena said you've got some special ability to do hallucinations, something like that," Amanda said.

"Uh, yeah..."

"Make a unicorn."

"What?!"

"I said make a unicorn in the sky and lure those Cards somewhere."

"But why the hell a freaking unicorn?!"

"Guys!" Kristina said as she accidentally missed a target when she glanced at the two.

"Or better yet, make yourself fart rainbows," Amanda added.

"Shut up!" Stephen yelled, then he concentrated.

Suddenly a winged horse with a horn on its head appeared in the sky, bearing snow white mane and cotton candy pink fur covering the rest of its body, its pearl white horn glinting. It was a magnificent sight, and as it galloped away, the Card Guards followed it, determinedly shouting for it to let them ride it.

"Told you so," Amanda said smugly.

Stephen only scowled.

"Let's get in!" Kristina said, putting her bow over her head and hurrying towards the gates, followed by the other two. She pushed one door open and they slipped in. But then they found themselves facing what looked like a large cardboard model of an inside of a castle that looked realistic but fake at the same time.

"What?" Stephen said as the group looked on in confusion.

Out of the blue, like how the unicorn appeared, emerging from the sides of the cardboard miniature were dogs. They had messy greyish white fur and they bared their sharp teeth. They couldn't just be regular dogs—they were wolves.

"Wolves!" Kristina exclaimed happily.

"Are you _nuts_, stupid cat?" Stephen yelled. "They're _carnivorous_!"

"Oh, right." Kristina didn't seem too happy about it—even though she was a cat she happened to admire wolves—but she held out her bow and started shooting at the wolves. But like the Card Guards, more just kept on replacing them whenever one was shot, and Kristina was already deteriorated in the first round.

"We've been led into a trap," Stephen muttered.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Captain Obvious has entered the building," Amanda said sarcastically (A/N by RoseLocket: I took that from a user in Wattpad, sorry :\)

"ARGH! Get off me!" Stephen kicked a wolf aside.

Just then—

_VVVRRRROOOOOOMMMMMM!_

A massive vehicle the size of an African elephant appeared from the open side of the cardboard. It had eight wheels the size of a human and it had a huge open box behind it, the truck bed. It was a pickup truck, and it was ramming over several wolves.

"WHEEEEEEEE!" the childish driver/s inside yelled.

"What the—?!" Amanda, Kristina and Stephen said in unison as the pickup truck went around squashing wolves in its path, almost making Kristina cry.

When every wolf in the area was killed under those huge boulders of wheels, the pickup truck stopped, and the door flew open. From the driver's seat out jumped two people, one boy and one girl. They both had blondish brown hair (like Miss E. Watson o'er there), the girl holding it up in a ponytail. They both wore button-up blouses—only that the boy's was gray and the girl's was white—and had belts around their waists which helped put the mid-thigh-length red shorts and blue skirt up. They both had striped stockings, knee-high brown laced boots with heels and a Beret cap on their heads, the red one for the boy and the blue one for the girl. They also had long knee-length coats, again one red and one blue, and black vests each.

"Hey, look here, Carly-Dee!" the one with the red Beret said. "It's some kind of travelling group!"

"Isn't that obvious already, Carlo-Dum?" Carly-Dee, the one in blue, said. "Wow, so many wolves planking around the place!"

"You should've let _me_ drive," Carlo-Dum pouted.

"But Carlo-Dum'll end up driving us over a cliff!"

"But _you_ also almost did!"

"Almost!"

"Almost got us killed!"

"Did not!"

"Did."

"Not!"

"Did."

"Not!"

"Did."

"Yo, whatup, Tweedles?" Stephen interrupted. "Better if you stop being drama queens?"

"Hey, I'm a boy!" Carlo-Dum pouted.

Carly-Dee dragged her brother to take one step forward. "We're the Tweedles, by the way," she said.

"I'm Tweedle Carlo-Dum," Carlo-Dum said.

"And I'm Tweedle Carly-Dee," Carly-Dee said.

"We're the Tweedles!" both twins said as if they've rehearsed this already a lot of times.

"Hey, Carly-Dee already said that," Carly-Dee said.

"When we say that, we have to be together in saying it," Carlo-Dum said.

"Oh, right." Carly-Dee turned around to face the trio. "So, you're the Cheshire Cat," she said, pointing at Kristina.

"The Hatter," Carlo-Dum said, pointing at Stephen.

"And..." both said, their fingers pointing at Amanda. Then they blinked and their eyes widened. "A HUMAN?!"

"SHHHH!" both Kristina and Stephen hissed.

Just then, something weird happened.

Stephen's hat disappeared, and so did Kristina's bow and arrows. When they started panicking and looking around frantically for their precious belongings, they saw something like an invisible force dragging their possessions by the side of the cardboard model. The Hatter and the Cat quickly sprinted forward, yelling really unintelligent stuff to whoever was taking their stuff.

Amanda turned back to the Tweedles and saw that they were both knocked out and were lying down on the snowy ground.

"Uh..." she said in bewilderment before she suddenly blacked out.


	7. VI - Wilfre

**[[RennRaven wrote this]]**

* * *

Kristina and Stephen ran after their floating belongings. The hat, bow, and quiver were heading towards a cliff, where they would most probably drop. Their belongings were flying away too fast. If they catch up with it, the speed of their "flight to the stars" will just increase.

"Dammit!" Stephen exclaimed.

Kristina suddenly had an idea. She disappeared into a cloud of purple and black dust and reappeared in the air, right in front of the hat and the bow and quiver. She grabbed it and fell flat on the ground out of loss of concentration. Stephen walked over to her.

"You should've done that ages ago," he said, grabbing his hat.

Kristina made a tch sound and stood up.

"Uhhh... Wait. Did we just leave Alice all alone or something?" Kristina said, taking out a yellow ball of yarn from her quiver and started to play with it.

"No. The Tweedles are there," Stephen said, dusting his precious hat.

Kristina stopped and looked down. "Or fainted."

"Hm?" Stephen said, looking at her then at the ground. There on the ground were two, unconscious, fraternal twins. Carly-Dee was squirming and was starting to wake up, while Carlo-Dum began to snore. Kristina knelt down on the ground and slapped Carlo-Dum; no such luck, he continued to snore.

"...snork..." Carlo-Dum yawned and scratched his stomach. "...Wilfre...Vorpal pendant...Wonderland...White Queen...danger...Darkness spreading..."

"Hm...?" Carly-Dee said, waking up and sitting. She stared at her brother and snorted. "What a heavy sleeper."

"No. He's saying something about...Wiflre...and the White Queen...and that there's danger," Stephen said.

"Then that means that Wilfre did something to put the White Queen in danger! Hurry! We have to go back!" Carly-Dee said, rising up. She dragged Carlo-Dum towards the pick-up truck and threw him inside. Kristina and Stephen followed. "What's worse is that the human is gone too! But let's just tell that to the White Queen when we get there."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! LET GO OF ME! WHO IN CHOCOLATE WORLD ARE YOU, ANYWAY?! WHY ARE YOU TAKING HOSTAGE OF ME?! HEEEEEEEEEY!" Amanda whined. She had her wrists, ankles, and her torso tied by unbreakable rope(it can be untied, but not even the big fat Knave's shadow sword can cut it in half). The rope tied around her, pinning her arms on her body, and unfortunately, her hands were behind her, and the rope was knotted in front of her, instead of at her back, so she definitely had no chance to escape.

"Ever heard of the term "shut up" or "silence"?" the guy who was dragging her said.

"Of course! I'm not stupid! Just tell me why you captured me and why you had to hit me with a frying pan! Seriously?! A frying pan?! Only a long haired blonde does that together with her husband!" Amanda pointed out.

"What, you expect me to hit you with a cricket bat or a steel rod? And you don't even know what kind of race you are? It's obvious that I kidnapped you because you're a human," he said.

"You're still not answering one of my questions."

"My name is Wilfre. That's all you have to know about me."

"What kind of name is Wilfre?! It's like you just removed the letter 'd' from Wilfred!"

Wilfre was now very annoyed by the irritating human he has kidnapped. He faced her and gave her a menacing look. Amanda looked at him straight in the eyes, and widened her own. When enraged, Wilfre's eyes change to a reddish color, with a black ring around the pupils, giving him a much more menacing appearance.

Amanda was frightened by his eyes. Wilfre looked back to where he was walking, and Amanda...she, despite Wilre's creepiness...started to sing in an off-tune voice.

"Just close your ey-e-s!" she sang, trying to reach the high note. "The sun is going down~... You'll be alri-ght! No one can hurt you now~... Come morning li-ght! You and I'll be safe...and...sou~nd..."

WIlfre was deeply-no, wait, EXTREMELY-annoyed by this. He continued to walk, trying hard to ignore her. But it was truly hard, since Amanda was like a rash which won't go away.

Stephen, Kristina, and Carly-Dee, who was dragging her twin brother, snuck in the White Queen's castle through the back, since the Crystal Card Guards were still keeping a look out, if ever the "girl with the cat eras" would return. The three had entered the kitchen, and went up a flight of stairs, towards the door leading into a hallway just a few meters away from the throne room. They ran along the corridor and went towards the double doors of the White Queen's throne room. They barged in to see the White Queen painting a picture of the moon shining above a twisted Christmas town.

"White Queen! White Queen! Wilfre stole the Vorpal pendant, right? Can you tell us of its power?" Carly-Dee asked.

The White Queen stopped what she was doing and looked at them. She had very long, wavy, blonde hair that reaches down to her feet, large black eyes, and pale skin. She was wearing a frilly, white robe where a light pink ribbon tied in a bow is attached on the chest, and appears to have wing-like adornments around her ears. She seems to prefer going barefoot.

"Ah yes, the Vorpal pendant which that Wilfre stole...," the White Queen said. "To activate the pendant's power, you need essence or DNA of a human..."

Carly-Dee, Kristina and Stephen's eyes widened.

"And when the pendant isn't in the right hands, Darkness will take over Wonderland..." The White Queen continued.

The three began to melt, but not literally, since it's just an expression.

"So... It doesn't matter what the personality of the human is, as long as it's a human?!" Kristina said.

The White Queen nodded, not knowing the fact that the cat was referring to Amanda.

"And the age doesn't matter?" Stephen asked.

The White Queen nodded again, still not getting why they were asking her questions.

"As long as she...or he...is a human?" Carly-Dee asked.

This time, the White Queen wondered why on Earth Land they were interrogating her. "What's wrong?"

"Wilfre kidnapped Alice, a human, and she's also one of our comrades," Kristina said, and at the same time, Stephen said, "Wilfre kidnapped an irritating chocoholic who's a human."

"What?!" the White Queen exclaimed in a loud but soft voice. "She'll be killed for sure!" The White Queen thought, 'And I my self know that ever since that stupid incident.'

Suddenly, a cloud of blue and grey smoke appeared. Everyone except the White Queen coughed. When the cloud of smoke cleared, Athena the Blue Caterpillar was revealed, sitting on her mushroom.

"White Queen," she said, "Wilfre is in the Midnight Forest, on his way to his house. He's also dragging a human named Alice who was irritating him by singing songs."

The White Queen faced Carly-Dee, Stephen, and Kristina. "You three will be accompanied by the Blue Caterpllar and then you'll search for Wilfre and take Alice back. You might as well take him as a prisoner, but I must warn you, his magic is powerful."

"What is Wilfre's magic, anyway?" Carly-Dee asked.

"Death Magic," the White Queen said.

"And with that magic, Wilfre can...?" Carly-Dee asked once again.

"Death Magic has the ability to cause any living thing around the wizard to die when the wizard uses Magic. This Magic seems to burst at random times but he can tell when it is going to happen. Certain things can protect people from the wizard's blast such as...your top hat, Hatter. It is implied that the Magic activates whenever he is agitated, scared, or surprised. Sometimes, Wilfre involuntarily releases a wave of Death Magic and anything hit by it dies," the Blue Caterpillar explained.

"What do you mean by involuntarily? So he doesn't actually want to hurt people, but thanks to his magic, he does?" Kristina asked.

"He has the appearance of a young man despite being hundreds of years old. And you can tell by his age that he has seen countless people die during the time of the Wonderland War. After that experience, he was cursed, so if he turns emotional, that's when his Death Magic activates without him controlling it," the White Queen continued. "He may look like he doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore if you know of his past, but he's actually a sadist who wouldn't hesitate to throw an unconscious body into a closet."

The rest disregarded that fact and moved on with the questions.

"Emotional? Like when he cries or gets surprised or something?" Stephen asked, trying to clarify what he was thinking of.

"Precisely," the White Queen said. "Anyway, now you must go. Shoo, shoo." The White Queen made a shooing motion.

Athena's mushroom started to move, going out the doors of the throne room and out into the hallway. The others-except Carlo-Dum, since he was definitely out cold-followed Athena. The four of them walked-except for the Caterpillar-out of the White Queen's castle.

"Hey! Cat girl and others!" the Crystal Card Guard, who was beside number 10 when he fainted earlier, shouted. "What the hell were you doing inside the White Queen's castle, huh?! Well?! Answer my question! You're not answering it! He-!"

Stephen shot him a glare. "Would you shut up and just ask the White Queen yourself, you lazy bums?"

The Card Guard gawked and began jumping in place in rage.

Ignoring the Crystal Card Guard who was rampaging around like what Natsu Dragneel from F.T. does, the four of them went into the Midnight Forest, where Wilfre's house-and Wilfre's house only, besides a bunch of gruesome creatures-lies. They all walked quickly in silence, except for Kristina, who was in her cat form, and was playing with the yellow ball of yarn that she took out earlier. Stephen was greatly annoyed by this and continued to glare at the darn black and purple striped cat. Kristina, however, noticed him ages ago, but simply ignored him. When Stephen had at least glared at her for 10 minutes straight, Kristina disappeared and reappeared right beside him in her humanoid form, staring at him.

"Why were you glaring at me? Can't you tell how annoying it would be if some black-clad hatter stared at a black and purple striped cat?" Kristina asked, and continued to stare at him.

"And don't you know that seeing a purple and black cat playing with a ball of yarn right in front of you is very annoying to a black-clad hatter?" Stephen responded.

"Well at least you don't have a weakness. And mine is over such a stupid thing...a soft...ball...of yarn...," Kristina pointed out.

"Who ever said I had no weakness? Everyone has a weakness, and mine is a b-" Stephen said, stopping himself from continuing with that sentence. He cleared his throat, then he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Like I said, everyone has a weakness."

Kristina was silent; not because of the fact that Stephen nearly said his weakness to his own rival, but for the act that she remembered something after hearing what Stephen has said...something which she couldn't quite put her finger on. She suddenly felt a harsh blow. She zoned off, therefore ignored her surroundings, and went into deep thought, so she slammed onto a tree trunk. "Damn," she said.

Stephen looked at her, processed what the hell just happened, and guffawed. It took him only one second to do that, and Carly-Dee and Athena were greatly surprised by his reaction. He wasn't the Stephen that they knew of; he was completely different in all ways. He just kept laughing, with his hand on his forehead, and his head tilted backwards. [[A/N by RennRaven: This is pay back, RoseLocket, for making me the torture magnet in the past chapter :P]] Kristina separated from the tree trunk and shot Stephen a glare. It was like the two of them switched places; Kristina was the one annoyed, and Stephen was the one annoying.

Carly-Dee and Athena just stood there, staring at them with wide eyes, and had their mouths agape. They were looking at the two like as if they had grown rabbit ears and a moustache.

"FUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU JUST...! AND THEN...! YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN YOUR FACE WHEN THAT TREE HIT YOU! GUWAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHHA!" Stephen exclaimed.

Kristina was now deeply annoyed and hit him on the forehead. "Hey! Focus on why we're here, okay? And stop laughing...that blow hurt, just so you'd know..."

Stephen sighed and became his old self again; not-too-jovial and laid-back.

The four began walking again in deep silence. They all just looked down on the ground, none of them looking in front if ever there were danger ahead of them.

"Wh-Who are you?" a voice said.

The four of them looked up to see a young man. He had spiky, pitch black, shoulder-length hair that was so black, it had a tint of blue and brown to it, a pair of black eyes, and a slight sad expression on his face. He wore a long-sleeved shirt with a diamond design in the colors red, black, and white; a pair of black pants tucked in his black, leather boots; and a hooded, black cloak.

"Hey! Don't just stand there like cattle from Seattle, or antelopes eating cantaloupes! Untie me!" Amanda shrieked.

"Stephen...," Wilfre whispered, but it was loud enough for Stephen to hear.

Stephen was confused. He has never seen or met WIlfre before, but somehow, Wilfre knew of him.

"A...thena...," Wilfre muttered.

Athena was confused. True, everyone knew her, but they knew her as the Blue Caterpillar, and not Athena.

Everyone-except Amanda, since she was squirming-stared at Wilfre.

Wilfre then began muttering other things and names.

"Uwaaaahhhh~! Untie meeee!" Amanda shrieked.

Kristina faced her with a dull face, except for the fact that she had a grin. Her eyes were completely white; she was hypnotized...or something. "A...lice...," she said.

Amanda looked at all of them; they were all hypnotized, but Stephen still had a little dot on one of his eyes, which was pretty creepy to look at. Athena, with her invisible force field broken, all thanks to Wilfre, had the same dull face, too, as well as Carly-Dee, except that she had a grin as wide as Kristina's.

Suddenly, all of them turned back to normal, except for Carly-Dee, who suddenly turned into a punk rock teenager. She had messy hair, black eyeliner, black lipstick, black nail polish, and red pupils. She was wearing a black shirt with ripped sleeves and a broken heart as a design, red, fingerless gloves, a plaid skirt with chains over her pants which looked like a cat clawed on them, and she had black Doc Martins with black silk ribbon tie.

Carly-Dee stuck her tongue out broke out into a laugh. "Blehhhhh~! Master Wilfre, what should Carly-Dee do with them?!"

Amanda, Stephen, Kristina, and Athena just stared at her, dumb-founded. All of them had an agape frown, and had their eyebrows knitted together.

"Hey, what did you do with her?!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Carly-Dee is now under Master Wilfre's control~!" Carly-Dee said in third person narrative.

"Just... Try and get rid of them, Carly-Dee," Wilfre ordered.

Carly-Dee grinned, and nodded. She started towards Athena, Kristina, and Stephen. She pulled out a rifle from a strap hanging on her shoulder. She changed the bullet to her "Mud shot" bullet. She shot it at the three, and they got stuck to a tree, except for Athena, because her invisible force field returned.

"Arghh!" Kristina and Stephen groaned. They were covered in mud which actually STAYED on the tree, leaving them there. The mud felt like glue, too. So, I guess they're stuck there for good. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, anyway, this story is focused on Amanda ze human, so yeah, back to her. Amanda kept screaming and yelling and shrieking while Wilfre pulled her away.

Suddenly, the mud cracked, and let Stephen and Kristina free. They began to creep away.

"Blehhhhhh~! And where do you think you're going?! Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh~?!" Carly-Dee asked. Carly-Dee placed her "Shadow Shot" bullet in her rifle, and shot them. Shadows went right through the Hatter and Cheshire cat, with shrills of pain coming from the shadows.

Kristina put her arms out, aiming at the shadows, and the shadows turned into ice, then the ice broke.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat~?! But...no one ever...survives Carly-Dee's...shadow shot...," Carly-Dee said.

"Well, there's at least one person who can surpass all. Don't be shocked by such a little thing," Kristina said.

Carly-Dee flew into rage. "Blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~! Carly-Dee will follow Master Wilfre's orders and KILL YOU!" she exclaimed.

Athena began to blow smoke around, to blind Carly-Dee. "Hatter," Athena whispered, "create an illusion of a red, fire-breathing dragon made of unicorn skin."

Stephen smirked. "Now that's something worth making an illusion of." He began to concentrate.

Suddenly, a roar was heard. A huge, red, dragon which was covered in flames was in front of them. Then they heard a scream, probably made by Carly-Dee.

A hop, skip, and a boat away, was Wilfre's house, where Amanda was being tortured.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Amanda screamed in pain.

Amanda was on the ground, in pain, and her skin was prickling. Symbols and scriptures were all over her body; Wilfre had cast "Scriptural Spell: Pain" on her.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What...is...this...?!" Amanda asked, grabbing her neck in pain.

"It's called 'Scriptural Spell: Pain.' When it is cast on you, you're going to have to endure pain greater than your wildest imagination," Wilfre said, making his eyes look scary to add "special effects." Wilfre continued to stir the pot filled to the brim with tomato soup.

"Master Wilfreeeeeeeee~! Carly-Dee has finally got rid of those little, batchy squirts!" Carly-Dee said, appearing in Wilfre's doorway.

Wilfre looked towards the way of Carly-Dee, and got tied up by a floating rope which was "made" by Carly-Dee.

"Ah...," Wilfre whispered.

"Either that or I just lied~! Carly-Dee will never, ever, try to hurt her friends!" Carly-Dee said.

Wilfre just stared at her, emotionless. "So where are they then?"

"Yay! I'm free!" Amanda said, standing up. The scriptural spell that Wilfre had cast on her had finally faded away. Amanda began to skip away...

...then fell into a pitfall which was made by Kristina.

"Whoops," Kristina said from behind the bush she was hiding in.

"An awesome pitfall, huh, cat?" Stephen, who was nonchalantly leaning against a magnificent willow tree, said sarcastically.

"That Carly-Dee person looks like some rocker chick! A punk teenager! And she's talking in a third person narrative! People who talk in a third person narrative are weeabos!" Amanda exclaimed, getting out of the pitfall which Kristina made to somehow "capture" Wilfre.

"Just 'cause a person talks in a third person narrative, doesn't mean he or she is a weeabo," Kristina said, materializing right beside Amanda, surprising the poor human.

"'Sides, how do you even know if Japanese people actually speak in a third person narrative?" Stephen asked, picking a heart-shaped fruit in a water bubble from the Willow tree he was leaning on, and savoring on it with his gusto afterwards.

"I saw it on Google!" Amanda exclaimed, mentioning the name of her beloved, virtual, internet friend who was a website that she always used to stalk random people she doesn't even know.

"What's a Google?" Carly-Dee asked. "And why is Alice talking about it?" Carly-Dee sighed, and then said. "Wilfre escaped."

Amanda, Kristina, Stephen, and Athena-who appeared out of the tiny fog of smoke which covered an orchard of pine trees-got shocked and said, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"

Carly-Dee looked down sadly. "Carly-Dee is very sorry for this. What is my punishment?"

"You have no punishment," a child-like voice said. All of them looked to where it came from, and there, a few feet away from them, was the White Queen, Angelia. "Even though WIlfre has the Vorpal pendant, he has no use of it. He can't use it without an extract from a human."

"E-Extract of a human?! What do you mean by that?! And who the hell are you anyway?! And why didn't anyone tell me about this WIlfre guy?!" Amanda asked without even taking in a breath.

"Well, for starters, I am the White Queen, Angelia Crystalia," Angelia said. "And to get human extract, you have to kill a human to get its extract. Either that, or you have to cast 'Scriptural Spell: Pain' on the human."

"'Scriptural Spell: Pain?' But that Wilfre person just cast that on me a few minutes ago. Does that mean that he got extract from me already?" Amanda asked.

"Well, it depends, did the pain finish, or did it make your skin bleed?" the White Queen asked.

"It finished..."

"Then that means he only has 10% of the human extract he needs, which is 30 driplings," Angelia said.

"What the hell are driplings?" Amanda asked.

"One amount of dripling is as big as the average tear drop which you make," Athena said.

"So in short, he needs...27 more driplings," the White Queen said.

"Wait. HOW IN CHOCOLATE WORLD DID HE EVEN GET EXTRACT FROM ME?!" Amanda shrieked.

"Uhhh... I don't know, what do you think? Do you even have any idea what's going on here?" Stephen said sarcastically.

"Ughhhh... How did I end up here, anyway?! And why me?! Did it have to be me?! And why are my friends in on this?! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!" Amanda whined.

"What do you mean your friends are in on this? Are you talking about your friends in Earth Land?" Kristina asked.

"Duh!" Amanda replied.

"Look, kid, we're just the counterparts of your friends in Earth Land, if ever we are friends in your world," Stephen said, irritating Amanda when he mentioned the term 'kid.'

"Kid?! Who you calling kid?! I'm 12-years old, for Pete's sake!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Your still a kid even if your 12, douche bag," Stephen interjected.

Amanda began crying. "Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy? Why meeeeeeeeeee? And why Wonderlaaaaaaaaaaaaand? Did it have to me the place which Stephen and Kristina are fans offffffffffffff?"

Hiding behind a pine tree was Lysia, still doing the "mission" which the Queen of Hearts told her to do. "Tsk, I was too late. Oh well, nevermind. Who cares about that stupid Queen of Hearts' orders, anyway?" Lysia then turned around, and saw him; WIlfre.

"Lysia...," Wilfre whispered.

Lysia just stared at him, dumbfounded.

Wilfre took out a frying pan from his cloak, raised it up high, and whacked Lysia on the head unconscious.


	8. VII - (Bitter) Sweet Slumber

**[[RoseLocket wrote this]]**

* * *

They were to set out the next morning to continue to look for Wilfre and do whatever it takes to stop him. They were allowed to sleep in the White Queen's castle, but instead of individual, this-room-is-all-for-you-so-you-can-do-whatever-the-crap-you-want, they were thrown together in one big bedroom with six beds across from each other, five feet away. It was like one of those border rooms with the multiple beds, only it was of course more decorative and old-fashioned. There were large trunks on the foot of each bed that held their things and magically transported some clothes from their own houses in Wonderland to be put inside, which was pretty cool.

"_Why_ do we all have to sleep together?" Carlo-Dum wondered out loud, picking something out of his fingernail. There was a shower connected to the room which the girls used, but Stephen and Carlo-Dum, being guys who are off-limits to a girls' bathroom, had to take two separate ones outside. Carlo-Dum had changed into blue-dyed cotton linen pajamas with long sleeves and, if you looked closely, tiny teddy bear polka dots decorating it (which was why he didn't want anyone to look closely at what he's wearing).

"Seems okay to me," Amanda muttered, sitting on her bed which was next to Kristina's. She had to borrow some clothes since she didn't have any in Wonderland besides the ones she was currently wearing before, so she ended up wearing a white nightgown that ended just a few inches past the knees, wearing a tank top and shorts underneath, all white.

"Did you take a bath, Athena?" Carlo-Dum asked Athena.

"No, I don't need to. I have no need to care for my hygiene issues," Athena said. She was still in her coat-and-boots getup and was sitting on her bed rather uncomfortably, swinging her legs like she was on the swing. She was like that since she was forced to get out of her mushroom and sit on the friggin' bed like a normal girl. But since she was the Caterpillar, and her mushroom was the source of most of her power, she was reluctant and now she looked like she wanted to go pee even though she didn't need to. '_When can I finally metamorphose?_' she kept thinking whenever she was off her beloved mushroom.

"Athena gets cranky whenever she's not being Mario~" Athena, Carlo-Dum and Amanda turned their head to see Carly-Dee get out of the bathroom, dripping wet. Her hair was wrapped up in a towel, and there was another towel wrapped around her body.

All of them turned away immediately after seeing her, faces and ears red. "DON'T DO THAT!" they all shrieked.

"Do what?" Carly-Dee asked, going over to her bed, which was in between Carlo-Dum's and Stephen's. She knelt over and opened her trunk to get her clothes. At least she didn't bend over—Amanda's bed was just across from hers, and she could see any danger zone if she bent over. "Carly-Dee just forgot to get her clothes."

"Then be less forgettable!" Athena actually hissed, her back to her.

"Wait, you know Mario?" Amanda said.

"Yes, he is this old fat plumber guy who lives in this part of Wonderland and is famous for rescuing this damsel called Princess Peach. His ultimate strength is mushrooms and his ultimate weakness is a turtle shell, which makes him look pretty stupid, in Carly-Dee's opinion," Carly-Dee said, closing her trunk lid when she'd retrieve her clothes and rolling her eyes as she made her way back to the bathroom to change clothes in the changing stall there. The shower still seemed to be on, indicating that Kristina was still there. She was too cowardly to go first.

"LOCK THE DOOR!" Kristina shrieked from the shower stall.

"Alright, alright, geez," Carly-Dee said, closing the door behind her.

"What was that all about?" a voice asked, and everyone turned their attention from the bathroom door to the double doors that served as the bedroom door, one of them swung open to let Stephen in. He was wearing a simple black t-shirt that was quite loose so the sleeves ended at the elbows and a pair of dark gray pajama pants. He was still wearing his ever-so-precious hat on his head, and he also still had his boots on. Perched on his nose were his glasses, which he was adjusting.

"Carly-Dee went out of the bathroom in only a towel," Amanda replied.

Stephen blinked with an uneasy expression on his face before crossing over down the aisle between the beds and going over to his own bed next to Carly-Dee's and sitting down on it. He muttered something under his breath while he put his glasses down on his bedside table. "I want tea," he groaned out loud, falling back on his bed and covering his face with a pillow.

"Do you hatters always have to drink tea everyday?" Carlo-Dum asked.

"Not exactly," Stephen replied to him, his voice muffled by the pillow over his face. "Though I'll go mad if I don't drink tea for about two days."

"But you just drank tea a while ago, during dinner," Athena pointed out.

Stephen didn't respond to that and just sat up and started unlacing his boots.

Out of the blue, Carly-Dee was laughing in the bathroom.

Everyone went all like _what the heck?_

Then they heard Kristina, out of the washroom, go all like: "Hey, where'd my clothes go?" Then later: "CARLY-DEE, GIVE ME BACK MY CLOTHES!"

"No!"

Slippery footsteps.

Kristina and Carly-Dee fighting.

"Give me back my clothes, Carly-Dee!"

"No!" Laughter.

"Come on! I can't sleep with only a towel on!"

"Some people do that!"

"But for Pete's sake, I'm still 12! I'm not some adult slut who goes without clothes on her bed!"

"Even less people fight in only towels!"

"Just give me my clothes!"

"Fine!"

A pause as Kristina seemed to take her clothes back from Carly-Dee. Why isn't she telling her to go out now so she could dress up?

Then it seemed to dawn on her.

"These...these aren't my clothes...," she stuttered.

"Yes, they pretty much don't look like they're Kristina's clothes..."

Another pause.

Then:

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING MY CLOTHES?!"

"Carly-Dee just wanted to know how it feels like having a hole on your pants and stuff..."

"Who the heck wants to experience stuff like that?! Take them off!"

"Okay, Carly-Dee shall undress right now..."

"NO! NO! NOT LIKE THAT! JUST...just change then I'll give you your clothes after you give me mine!"

"No."

"Carly—"

Carly-Dee quickly came racing out of the bathroom, wearing a navy blue shirt with the picture of a fanged smile on it and a pair of shining gold catlike eyes over it, and a pair of loose shorts that went to the knees. She was laughing out loud to herself even as she jumped on her bed on her butt.

"CARLY-DEE, I'M SOOOO GOING TO KILL—" Kristina emerged from the bathroom, holding something that looked like a toilet paper holder high over her head as if prepared to throw it. Then she stopped cold when she realized everyone was watching, and her face went red when she realized she was still in her towel. "GAH!" She quickly retreated back into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. "CARLY-DEEEEE!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"YEEESSSSS?" Carly-Dee called back.

"Give. Me. Back. MY CLOTHES!"

"But Carly-Dee is already wearing them!" Carly-Dee said, sounding all innocent.

"Car—"

The doors of the bedroom suddenly flew open, and there stood a young girl in a white nightgown rubbing one of her eyes sleepily. "What's with all the ruckus...?"

"Angelia!" Carlo-Dum said.

"Um..." Carly-Dee said.

"I couldn't sleep upstairs because I could hear some shouting coming from this room..." Angelia looked around through half-lidded eyes. "Where is Kristina?"

"Still dressing up," Athena replied.

"Well, try to quiet down, okay? And you need to sleep, because you're going out tomorrow when you're ready, but we're not going to have that at night time. Goodnight then." And with that Angelia turned and shut the door behind her.

"Ooo-kay...," Stephen muttered with a blink.

"I'm going to say this nicely, Carly-Dee," Kristina said from inside the bathroom in an exasperated tone. "Give. Me. Back. My clothes."

"Can't you just appear over here and fight for them?" Carly-Dee asked with a smirk.

"No, I can't risk my towel falling off," Kristina replied. "Just...will you just please give me back my clothes?"

"Just give her clothes back already," Stephen said with an eye roll. "The cat's screaming is really annoying."

"Your scream is annoying too!" Kristina called out.

"Whose isn't?" he replied in a loud voice, as if addressing a deaf person.

"Nope, Carly-Dee won't give her clothes back," Carly-Dee said before sticking her tongue out. "And don't even risk stripping Carly-Dee!"

"None of us would dare to do that," her brother said.

"But maybe in a Truth and—" Amanda began.

"No," Stephen immediately said, eyes wide. "No."

"'Kay," Amanda said, shrugging. "I won't say it."

"Good."

"To settle things down," Athena suddenly said, "why don't you wear Carly-Dee's pajamas just for the night, Kristina?"

The bathroom door slightly opened, and Kristina put her head through and looked at Athena in shock and doubt. "What."

Athena, who was still swinging her legs back and forth, said: "Go wear Carly-Dee's pajamas for the night. It's okay." And then telepathically she added: _But you know what to do in the morning_.

Kristina looked surprised, then she nodded and hid the wide smirk that she was doing inwardly at the moment. She went back inside the bathroom and changed.

Carlo-Dum noticed that Amanda—or Alice, in Wonderland case—was quiet, which wasn't very usual. He looked over her bed and said, "Hey, Alice, why are you being so quiet?"

But when he strained his ears, he found out that Amanda was breathing in and out slowly, and she was asleep. This was true—she had her blanket over her head and seemed to prefer not showing her face while sleeping (at least, while not in her own bedroom back home), her body curled up to keep herself warmer.

"Darn Tweedle, you planned this all along, didn't you?" Kristina hissed, materializing at the foot of Carly-Dee's bed. She was wearing this fabulous pink nightgown that looked more like a sweater dress with dark pink lace decorating the neckline, sleeves and hem, and what was worse was the big picture of a white cat with a magenta-coloured bow on its tail and around its neck. It had sparkles in its eyes and would've reminded Amanda (if she were awake) of either Hello Kitty or Marie the Cat from that Disney movie. Kristina's tail swished from side to side angrily under her dress, and her ears kept twitching up and down. Her hair was down instead of in its usual ponytail, and the band that usually tied her hair up was around her wrist like a bracelet.

Carly-Dee took one long look at her, then she threw herself back against the bed and started laughing out loud again. Kristina looked like an internet meme in those rage comics Lysia—the real one—enjoyed reading.

"Well, isn't it the apocalypse," Stephen chuckled, though he wasn't really looking at her—he was obviously getting sleepy.

"Shut up, Hatter."

* * *

Amanda woke up in the middle of the night, when a high, weird sound did the job. It sounded like when someone does a raspberry (the one you do with your tongue pressed in between your lips). When she sat up and sniffed, she realized it was far worse than someone doing a raspberry—someone farted.

Ew. Ew. EWW.

It sounded like it was coming from somewhere across from her, and she thought at first that it was Carly-Dee (especially since her pants have a hole on them). But when her eyesight adjusted in the darkness, she saw Carlo-Dum utter something about unicorns under his breath and turn to the wall, releasing some gas as a result.

Amanda covered her nose and mouth. Darn, why wasn't anyone else waking up to the stench? Wonderland fart was disgusting. No way could she get back to sleeping, breathing in Carlo-Dum's gas.

Her stomach suddenly grumbled, and she found an excuse to get out of the bedroom while she still could. So she got out of bed, and, guided by the faint moonlight shining through the thin gaps by the drapes over the window, she made her way off to the double doors at the end of the room. Thankfully, the door didn't squeak much, so Amanda didn't have too much difficulty going through it while trying not to wake her friends up.

The hallway had white-carpeted floors and portraits along the walls, which had pillar halves mended into them separated by the portraits. They contained paintings of important-looking people who must've been Angelia's ancestors, seeing how almost all of them looked a little like her, and it seemed that most of them were women. Moonlight washed out of the windows on the wall to her left, and it appeared the White Queen didn't have time to put curtains over them or something. Amanda had to walk on the floor barefoot, but it was okay since it was carpeted, but she wasn't so used to it. Her mother had already given her a lesson a long time ago about not getting her feet dirty by walking barefoot all the time. Now, if only she'd remember the route leading to the kitchen...

Finally, she came upon double doors with the glass windows that she hoped was her destination. She pushed at one of the doors, but it wouldn't budge. Of course they'd lock up the kitchen doors during night to prevent burglary. Obvious.

"Hey, girl."

Amanda turned her head to the side to see someone who just appeared straight out of nowhere, leaning against the wall. He had messy hair coloured dirty blonde and vivid violet eyes. He wore a blue leather jacket with a gray shirt underneath and also dark blue jeans and a pair of wicked combat boots that could've made even Stephen jealous. When he smiled, Amanda felt like she was also seeing a few girls nearby, swooning as if the boy were Harry Styles or something.

"'Sup," he said, blowing a lock of hair among his bangs out of his face, only to have it flop back over it.

Those girls might need an ambulance now, Amanda thought as the imaginary girls standing by fainted and hit their heads on the floor. She then went on staring at the guy almost blankly but also inquiringly, like: _who the heck are you?_

"I'm Dylan," he said, straightening up from the wall and starting towards her, but in response Amanda just took a few steps backward away from him. "Whoa, come on," Dylan laughed. "Not like I'm gonna—"

Suddenly he stopped and backed a step, his eyes wide. Amanda's eyes were wide too, only out of surprise. A knife had its sharp tip buried into the wall, stopping just inches from Dylan's face. Its handle was carved with intricate designs, so it was recognized as one of those fancy throwing knives seen in movies.

Dylan made a smirk. He grabbed hold of the knife's hilt and took it off of the wall, leaving a crack in the cement. He examined the blade. "Hey, it's coated in poison," he observed with a little laugh. "The knife could've been deadlier if your aim was more accurate."

Stephen simply put on his infamous scowl and eye narrow. He'd appeared there out of the shadows, much like Dylan, but he had two people with him—Kristina and Athena. Athena was passed out and Stephen was giving her a piggyback (and he didn't look so amazing at giving people piggybacks, and it was harder, considering he had to use his right hand to throw the knife) while Kristina was simply in cat form, stalking by quite grumpily. For some reason, she hadn't turned into her mostly preferred human form.

"Nice of you to say so, Dylandre," Stephen said sarcastically, adjusting Athena on his back. He looked at Amanda. "What are you doing here, Alice? You're supposed to be in bed."

"I'd like to ask you the same question," Amanda replied. She tilted her head to the side as if to see more of his companions, "Carrying Athena on your back and Kristina a cat..."

"Oh? You know this human, Hatter?" Dylan raised an eyebrow, his smirk turning cocky.

"Yes." Stephen turned his head to Kristina, who was playing with a ball of yarn that, like Dylan and Stephen himself, appeared simply out of thin air. His eye twitched, and he kicked the cat. "STOP DOING THAT RANDOMLY, WILL YOU?!" he shrieked.

"Oh, feuds between Hatters and cats, typical," Dylan snickered.

Stephen glared at him, then turned to Amanda. "Alice, what exactly are you doing?" he asked.

Amanda opened her mouth to respond, but then her stomach rumbled to answer for her.

"Oh." Stephen nodded. "I see." He looked at Kristina. "Why don't you do the work, cat?"

Kristina made a catlike whiny/annoyed sound, before stalking over to the doors and then floating upwards to go in level with the keyhole above the handles of the doors. She inserted a long claw into the keyhole, moved it around for a while before a satisfying snapping noise made Kristina smirk a little and pull her nail out before dropping to the ground. "Mrow," she said before going into the kitchen.

Stephen went over and followed her carrying Athena along, and after Amanda came Dylan last, who closed the door behind them.

Kristina went over and turned the light switch on. The room immediately flooded with lights, and everyone else except Dylan and an unconscious Athena covered their eyes and winced at the brightness, but soon got used to it. Stephen went over and dropped Athena on the chair by the table, putting her head in her arms so that she could sleep (even just a little) comfortably. Then he went off to the pantry closet, opened it then started looking through it while Amanda took a seat next to Athena and Dylan took a seat across from her. Kristina appeared on the table and started playing with a ball of yarn.

"So, your name is Alice, huh?" Dylan said, his jaw leaning against his knuckles. "I've never met a human before."

Amanda felt her ears go red, and Kristina meowred while yanking at a string of yarn with her teeth.

"Quiet, cat," Stephen muttered, examining a vial of purple liquid that he found in the pantry closet. "I can't concentrate. Same goes for you, Dylandre."

"Riiiiight," Amanda muttered.

"I said 'quiet,' Alice."

"Enki likes you."

"Rebellious." Dylan smirked before Stephen could ask who the hell was Enki. "I like that."

Something flew overhead Dylan, missing him entirely, and when Amanda tilted her head to the side she could see another of Stephen's throwing knives pinned to the wall.

"I told you to shut up, Dylandre," Stephen said, putting back the vial.

"You truly love purposefully missing aim, don't you, Hatter?" Dylan said cockily. "Or is it that you're just genuinely bad at doing it?"

"I can shamelessly admit that it's door number two, because I honestly prefer guns better if they aren't so loud." Stephen picked up a flask containing blood-red liquid, examined it, then nodded. "Okay, cat. We've got it."

"Got what?" Amanda asked.

Stephen went over with the flask, holding it carefully, and set it on the table before going over to another cabinet, opening it and taking a saucer out from it. He brought it to the table, uncapped the flask and poured a few drops into the saucer, careful not to make the whole thing tip over. It looked like ketchup. "Drink up, cat," he told Kristina, putting the cork back on the flask and returning it to the pantry closet.

Kristina went over to the saucer. She bent down, sniffed it, then made a hissing sound of disgust as she recoiled.

"Oh, dear Hatter," Dylan snickered. "Her Ladyship the Cheshire Cat seems to disapprove of what you're attempting to give her."

"It's something that will get you out of your cat form, cat," Stephen told her, closing the pantry doors. "If you want to assume a humanoid form again, then you better drink up."

The cat seemed to be wanting to scowl at Stephen (but couldn't of course) before dipping her head in and reluctantly lapping up the liquid three times. When she was done, she coughed and disappeared. She reappeared on the floor next to the table in a puff of red smoke, and when the smoke came off she was back in humanoid form, in Carly-Dee's nightdress and her hair up in a ponytail. She was coughing a little.

"Welcome back, cat," Stephen muttered.

Kristina's ears twitched up and down, and her tail was swishing from side to side behind her, which seemed to have happened for the thousandth time. "Nya..." she said, running a hand through her messy hair.

Dylan's eyes sparkled, and he opened his mouth to say something, but then Stephen yelled: "DAMN IT, WILL YOU STOP TRYING TO DO THAT?!"

Athena suddenly sat bolt upright, eyes wide and darting around, mouth agape. Then she regained her composure and rubbed her eyes. "Where's my hookah...?" she mumbled sleepily.

"The Hatter got curious," Dylan replied before anyone could. "He wanted to experience how it was to be a real man, so he tried your hookah."

_ARE YOU #$%ING KIDDING ME?!_ Stephen wanted to shriek.

Athena seemed to regard him for a while before saying: "You're lying."

"No I'm not."

The Caterpillar stared at him.

Dylan laughed. "Okay, so the Caterpillar can detect lies. Tell me, when will the time come when you will be called 'Butterfly'?"

"Soon, I hope," Athena replied, sighing. "How long was I asleep?"

"Stephen had to carry you~!" Kristina sang, laughing.

Stephen rolled his eyes and simply rounded the table to the wall behind Dylan. He pried the knife out of the wall.

"We were in the library," Athena explained to Amanda, squinting at the table intently as if some interesting writing had suddenly appeared there. "We were hoping to look for some spells or something that might retrieve back the extract Wilfre has taken from you via Scriptural Spell, but unfortunately the Cheshire Cat here accidentally knocked down a potion while searching through the shelves in cat form—two, in fact. One seemed to have no effect on her at all, but the other sent up a cloud of a strange pink substance that seemed to knock me out of consciousness."

"Oh, dear me," Dylan chuckled. "So the Cheshire Cat here was the reason why the Hatter had to carry the unconscious Blue Caterpillar on his back while a cat walked by?"

"Shut up," both Kristina and Stephen said. Then they glared at each other and said in unison: "YOU shut up!" Then: "Stop copying me!"

Dylan simply laughed more.

"Why're you here, anyway?" Stephen grumbled.

"Oh, I was just travelling to my house back from a friend's place when I came across my dear cousin's castle and thought I sensed a human. So I came in to investigate." Dylan wagged his eyebrows rather flirtatiously at Amanda. "So you want to—"

"How come you can do that?" Kristina asked.

"Do what? I could go sneak into my cousin's house any—"

"She means how you can sense Alice's a human," Athena said.

"Oh, that." Dylan leaned back in his chair with his arms behind his head and he put his combat boots on the table, making Amanda draw back. "I'm a wizard, for your information."

Amanda just gave him a poker face that also said: _I so believe you._

"No, really, I am," Dylan told her. "I can control the winter air to bring me here in the form of mist. And since this place is all snowy and such, my magic is quite efficient and easy to use." He grinned. "I'm also Angelia's cousin."

"Yeah, you two are so much alike," Stephen muttered.

"Now, I'd like to hear more about you, Alice," Dylan said. "Since you're the human here."

"Don't bother," both Kristina and Stephen hissed again. Then they whipped their heads in each other's direction and sent electricity arcing from their glares. "Darn you..." they both snarled.

_You can't spill any important information, especially on Wilfre_, Athena telepathically told Amanda. _That's what they're thinking, but if they let this thought out then Dylan will know something is being kept from him and might try to find out in his own ways._

_I'm still a better stalker than him, so no worries... _Amanda telepathically replied. _With my best friend Google, we can do anything we want._

_What's Google?_

"It won't hurt to let him know more," Amanda announced.

Stephen and Kristina stopped bickering with each other and turned to Amanda in confusion, clear question marks hovering over their heads (oh, and Stephen isn't wearing his hat right now. Top hats don't go along well with t-shirts, and he knows that full well).

Dylan's eyebrows rose in anticipation. "Yes, dear Alice?"

Amanda looked like she was about to clear her throat like she was about to present a speech concerning something really important and yet really boring, but then she motioned to his boots, which were still on the table. Dylan removed them and leaned over it again with his elbows on it.

Amanda cleared her throat and leaned forward as well, but kept a prudent distance away. It was as if the two of them were going to share a secret that the others shouldn't overhear. "I have a pet sheep back at home," she said.

"Yes?" Dylan's lips twitched upward in amusement.

If her real friends were here—those ones who weren't all Wonderland-y—they would either be doing a stifled giggle ("LOL, yeah, _that_ sheep"), a confused look ("Where's she getting to? She doesn't have a pet sheep, it would've been dead the first few months it stayed with her") or a face-palm ("That stupid, smelly sheep, I want no more than to strangle it to death").

"His name is Enki," Amanda continued. "He'd like to sell you a hug."

Dylan blinked and looked confused for a while, before he leaned back on his chair and laughed. "Oh? And how much is it?" he chuckled.

"Oh, you'd _want_ to hug him, yeah," Amanda said while nodding her head briskly. "I get the feeling whenever I run my fingers across his fur and scoop up his poo, oh, so _turned on_. He's got a really slim body that's so sexy even boys get gay looking at him. He's like a replica of, dare I say, Elmo."

Dylan's smile now looked a little weird, like_: I'm smiling. That's it. I'm smiling. Because this girl is telling me a weird story of a sheep with curves that supposedly gets guys turned on._

"So you want a hug from him?" Amanda asked.

The room was quiet, and you could almost hear some Wonderland owl outside hooting randomly like owls and crickets always do at those dramatic TV shows or just dramatic TV shows pretending to be dramatic TV shows.

"How about we go back to sleep?" Kristina suggested.

Everyone started muttering like: "Yeah, that's a good idea" "Sure, why not?" and "Awesome" as they started heading out of the kitchen.

"Not you, Dylandre," Stephen promptly said as they were exiting through the doorway. Dylan only smirked and followed after them last, switching the lights off and closing the door behind him.

As they went along the hall—Stephen and Kristina arguing about something involving curtains and creaky bookshelves—Amanda began to wonder, since she was just recently talking about her crush Elmo, her shitzu Enki and how she liked selling hugs for her dog, about how things were going back home. What time is it? Did her friends and family notice she was missing? Are they looking for her right now?

Finally they reached the bedroom wherein the Tweedles were still sleeping, and Athena opened the door and they let themselves in. Though, before Amanda could get in, Dylan reached out and grabbed her arm before she could even step foot inside. His hand was cold, but not too cold.

"Would you mind if Alice and I have a little talk for a while?" he asked.

The three other Wonderland people turned to look at them. Athena furrowed her eyebrows together, eyes a little wide. Stephen looked the same as when Amanda told him about Carly-Dee getting out of the bathroom with only a towel on. Kristina pretended she had the wrong idea and tried not to laugh.

Dylan didn't wait for their answer too long, though (apparently he accounted 'uhhh' as a yes). He closed the door and turned to Amanda, who was putting on her signature poker face now but with a hint of wariness in it. But Dylan didn't look the least bit suggestive and wasn't wagging his eyebrows or doing rapist stuff like that. He actually looked a little serious, which was un-Dylan, Amanda could tell.

"What will you be doing tomorrow?" he asked in a non-suggestive way.

"Goin' out," Amanda replied nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders. "We're gonna try to find someone."

"Listen," Dylan said, taking a step towards her. "You'll have to be careful along the way."

"Thanks for the advice."

"No." Dylan bore his eyes into hers. "The Darkness is spreading. The instigator will win if he obtains you and manages to subdue your friends to the possible point of elimination."

Amanda felt a small wave of worry collapse over her. But after seeing what her Wonderland friends did today—Lysia's speed, Athena's smoke magic, Kristina's ice magic and her archery, Stephen's (awesome) unicorn power, the Tweedles' truck and their guns and Angelia's ultra-scariness that she showed them during dinner time (a long story)—it was a little hard to imagine them being defeated by some emo guy who hit her with a frying pan.

"Once _he_ reaches his goal and gets all the driplings he needs from you, Wonderland will fall," Dylan said. "Now, I know you might not need to worry too much about that because of your friends' counterparts on the Other Side, but I tell you—what happens to your Wonderland friends will happen to your friends back from where you came from."

That...was incredibly ominous.

"Any way to reverse that?" Amanda asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"If there were a way, I would tell you," Dylan replied, and he sounded honest. "But the best way to do it for the meantime is to avoid being captured by _him_. Meaning you'll have to give your friends a lesson on not leaving you alone for less than a minute." He jutted his chin to the door of the bedroom.

"Yeah, sure, I'll take care of that," Amanda muttered.

"Another thing." Great, he's not finished. More mysterious stuff. "You have a traitor among your friends."

"What?!" Amanda nearly shrieked.

"At least, you will," Dylan said before disappearing into cold mist and flowing past Amanda like a wintry wind, blowing her hair back slightly.

Amanda looked back at the mist that he was currently taking the form of, but it had already disappeared in thin air.

"Alice!" Amanda turned to the door of the bedroom and saw Athena half-out the bedroom through the slightly opened door. "We wouldn't want you to be sleepy along the way," she said. "Come on, get some more rest."

"Well, sure," Amanda said as casually as she could, walking into the bedroom after Athena.


	9. VIII - Winters' Fall

**[[RennRaven wrote this]]**

* * *

Kristina groaned and fell off her bed.

Stephen groaned hearing Kristina groan when she fell off her bed.

Carlo-Dum groaned hearing Stephen groan when he heard Kristina groan when she fell off her bed.

"Who was that?" Stephen groaned.

"Beats me...," Carlo-Dum mumbled.

"I wasn't asking you," Stephen snapped.

"Shush it!" Kristina snipped. "Gonna do something."

"Another one of your Cheshire pranks?" Carlo-Dum asked.

"Yeahp!" Kristina fistpumped.

"Then whoever you're gonna do it to...," Carlo-Dum started.

"...We have no idea about it," Stephen finsihed.

"Yeah, whatever," Kristina waved off.

Then she got to work...

* * *

_Not a good way to start the morning is when..._

"KRISTINA!" Carly-Dee.

"Ugh, _dammit_! Who the hell turned on the alarm clock?!" Stephen.

"Alarm clocks in the _Renaissance_?! Argh..." Carlo-Dum.

"What is all this ruckus?!" Athena.

Giggle. "That's what you get, female Tweedle!" Kristina.

"Zzzz..." Amanda A.K.A. Alice.

"Kristina should be _ashamed _of herself for almost embarrassing Carly-Dee!" Carly-Dee said.

Kristina giggled a bit creepily. "What I want to do is my choice, not yours."

Carlo-Dum and Stephen couldn't take it anymore. They got up, rubbing their eyes. Stephen reached for his glasses and placed them on, while Carlo-Dum scratched the back of his head.

They saw Kristina in her own pajamas (the one Carly-Dee stole the previous night) while Carly-Dee, who was under the covers hiding, was sweat-dropping and pointing a finger at Kristina.

_So this is the prank?_ Stephen thought, but without him knowing, he sent it to Carlo-Dum telepathically.

_Say you never knew this would happe_n, Carlo-Dum responded.

"That is just too cruel of Kristina!"

"You're fault~! Now, you just have to find your clothes." Giggle. "Wherever they are."

Carly-Dee made a whiny, high-pitched sound, like the ones little girls use signaling they are about to cry just to persuade their parents into buying a stuffed animal.

Kristina stared nervously at Carly-Dee.

"Kristina, do something. I don't like the looks of this," Carlo-Dum interjected. "And I've nearly went into a near experience of this."

Kristina started sweating as Carly-Dee continued to whine.

"_Cat_," Stephen said sternly and boss-like.

Kristina made a slight pouting face.

"Kristina!" Athena exclaimed.

Carly-Dee screamed hysterically. And believe me, it was _not_ a pretty scene. And it woke Amanda up, by the way.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH-!"

"IT'S IN THE BROOM CLOSET A FEW DOORS AWAY FROM HERE!" Kristina frantically said, interrupting Carly-Dee, or else her sensitive cat ears will bleed, plus she will have a heart filled with guilt.

"Yay~" Carly-Dee said, about to stand up.

"Carly-Dee! Don't stand up!" Kristina exclaimed.

"Oh." Carly blushed. "Right." Carly-Dee blinked.

"I'll get 'em." Kristina made her way out the doors, an eye twitching.

_Baby, _Stephen told Kristina telepathically.

_As if I could hold that much grief for hurting a friend! _Kristina responded.

_Hey, SHE was the one who stole your pajamas, remember?_

_And do you really think that that's such a big deal? And then to make her scream and cry and whine like that?_

_You just don't want your ears to hurt._

Their bickering just went on and on as Kristina took Carly-Dee's dress out of the broom closet and as she made her way back to the bedroom, and as she entered the bathroom, and so on...

* * *

_ "Another thing." Great, he's not finished. More mysterious stuff. "You have a traitor among your friends."_

_ "What?!" Amanda nearly shrieked._

_ "At least, you will," Dylan said before disappearing into cold mist and flowing past Amanda like a wintry wind, blowing her hair back slightly._

_What was that supposed to mean?_ Amanda thought.

Who was that traitor? Were they the Tweedles? Maybe, maybe not. But it can't, though, since the White Queen looked after them.

Was it Stephen? Maybe... Well, despite his...Stephen-ness and Hatter-ness...he was reliable.

Was it Kristina? In her world, the _real_ Kristina was trustworthy. Well, except when she and the real Lysia asked each of them to do a dare (except the real Athena), and they would agree. The dare usually consisted of licking a tiny bit of ice cream droppings of her _Wagnum _or else they'll have to... Well, whatever.

Was it...(SHOCKER)...Athena? No. It can NOT be her. She's the Blue Caterpillar, for Pete's sake!

Or...WORSE...was it..._her_? Was _she_ the traitor? Is Wilfre controlling her right now, without her knowing it? What were the odds. But it wasn't her.

"Alice?" Athena said, snapping Amanda out of her thoughts.

"Oh... Huh? Yeah?" Amanda replied.

"Are you ready, yet?"

"Yeah, I guess..."

"...You brought chocolate and put it in your bag, now, didn't you?"

"No..." Amanda casually brought out a bar of chocolate out of her bag pocket, removed the wrapper, and ate it.

Athena sighed.

Amanda began listening to Angelia's instructions.

"Don't fall into traps, don't fall off a cliff, don't go mad - especially you, Hatter," she said, then added threateningly, "'cause you brought a _box_ of tea bags, so _no excuses_ - don't get eaten by dragons, Pikachus, flesh-eating cows, insanely mad bulls, and most importantly, DO _NOT_ LEAVE ALICE ALONE. There's a 50:50 chance that Wilfre may kidnap her yet again and complete the amount of Human driplings and cause Darkness to _completely_ take over Wonderland and make it fall. If Wonderland falls, so will the real world.

"In the real world, there are fairy tales with characters that live here in Wonderland, and if Wonderland _does_ fall, all the memories of fairy tales and fantasies inside a human's brain will be gone for good. You wouldn't want that. That is what Wonderland is for. Oh, and don't hurt or kill yourselves, because if you do, it will also happen to your Earth counterparts, therefore hurting Alice's friends."

"Where does she get all the right words without making a mistake?" Kristina mumbled, particularly to no one.

"She's the White Queen. What do you expect?" Stephen whispered back to her.

"Oh, and by the way," Angelia continued. "If you guys end up having a battle, like what happened with Dark Carly-Dee and Kristina-"

"I was there too!" Stephen piped up.

"-just use your powers," Angelia continued, not minding Stephen. "And as for you, Alice, I'll be lending you a pair of lightning rods. You point it at someone and they will be struck by lightning from the rod and they should be unconscious for a mere 30 seconds. It's merely a bluff, so you make use of the 30 seconds by thinking of your next move."

Angelia handed Amanda a pair of identical rods which were 1-inch wide and 6 inches long. Amanda took them and hung them on her belt.

"Also, I have received news from the Northern Wonderlanders. They told me that Wilfre has captured the White Rabbit, Lysia," Angelia said.

"And why'd he capture her?!" Amanda and Kristina exclaimed in sync.

"I don't know. But you better rescue her, alright? She's the White Rabbit. And I'm pretty sure she can't use her powers right now on Wilfre because he has handcuffs which absorb a wizard's magic power temporarily."

"We will, White Queen," Athena said for all of them.

"Alright," Angelia finally said. "You may all go, now. That's all I have to say."

And then they set off.

* * *

"Where are we?" Amanda asked, dropping to the ground, filled with fatigue

Kristina dropped to the ground next to Amanda, tired of walking as well.

(She was prohibited to use speed flying. But Athena allowed her to use it, for one time, when they had to cross a river, to get a piece of wood from the other side. But Kristina refused and just swam across, then she got whipped away. Carlo-Dum had to rescue Kristina, while Stephen got the block of wood, losing his hat in the process, but getting it back anyway because Carly-Dee looked for it.)

"Wherever we are, there should be food. I'm starving," she said.

_FWIP!_

"Ow!" Kristina rubbed the back of her head, where Stephen's top hat was thrown at.

Surprisingly, Stephen managed to aim nicely, even though he intentionally aimed at her neck where it could cut off, but the back of the head worked too.

"And what did you do that for?!" Kristina exclaimed.

"Because you were too annoying," Stephen responded, taking the hat back.

"Well, you're more annoying, just so you'd know."

"Well, you're the most annoying cat I ever met!"

"And _you're_ the most annoying _hatter_ I ever met!"

They glared at each other as electricity went crackling from their glares.

Carly-Dee looked out into the distance and saw a river. There was a boy by the river who was about their age. (The age range of the young Wonderlanders + Amanda is from 12-14 years old.)

"Carly-Dee wonders who that is over there by the river side," she said.

"What was that? Sis?" Carlo-Dum asked his twin.

"Over there. There's a boy 'bout our age." Carly-Dee pointed to where the boy was.

Carlo-Dum looked to where she was pointing at. Oh. That one. "Hey, guys! Carly-Dee saw someone."

Stephen and Kristina stopped bickering about who was more annoying, and faced to where Carlo-Dum was pointing; Athena looked up from smoking to where the river was; and Amanda looked to where the boy was.

"Who could that be?" Athena wondered out loud.

"And what's he doing there?" Stephen asked, particularly to no one at all.

"Maybe he's drinking water. Or he's washing his face. Or maybe he's about to take a bath," Kristina logically replied to him, even though his question was quite rhetorical.

"Don't state the obvious, cat."

Stephen and Kristina's foreheads were now pushed together, just like in the anime or in the old cartoons.

"Well, it's _your_ fault that I stated the obvious. I was just giving out a logical suggestion to as what he was doing!" Kristina pushed her forehead.

"What do you mean it's _my_ fault? _You _were the one who went all logical and formal, and even answered a _rhetorical_ question! Don't you know what rhetorical is?" Stephen pushed his.

"I know what it means, I'm not stupid. Do I look stupid to you?!" Kristina pushed hers, this time.

"Guys, are you going to take up the whole chapter, again?" Amanda interrupted.

The two friend/rivals harrumphed as they faced away from each other.

"Anyway, as I said, who could that be?" Athena asked once more.

"I'll go ask him!" Amanda fist pumped, making her way towards the boy.

As she approached the boy, she saw that he was poking the water with a stick, his chin in his hand.

"Hi."

_SPLASH!_

The boy fell in head first into the water, screaming out of shock, which was weird, since Amanda just said 'hi', no more, no less.

"Great job, Alice!" Stephen yelled sarcastically.

"I didn't yell at him, unlike what you're doing right now, for your information," Amanda said.

Kristina and Carlo-Dum (never forget a twin of a twin or the twins wouldn't be twins. Did I make sense there? O_O) ran towards the river and helped the boy out of the river.

"You 'kay?" Kristina asked him.

"I-I guess I'm okay," the boy said. "T-Thanks."

He looked towards Amanda and realized she was human the instant he saw her. _It's a human! I found the human! _he thought. _Oh, _he_'ll be proud! Maybe _he_ can even revive _them_!_

"Sorry," Amanda apologized to him.

"I-It's fine," he stuttered.

"What's your name?" Carlo-Dum asked.

"My name's...Winters," Winters introduced. His name suited him perfectly. Winters was a pale young man with spiky, snow white hair and light blue eyes. He wore a white, button-up blouse, light blue pants, a pair of white boots, and an unbuttoned, blue coat. (Picture of him (in different clothes, obviously) at the side.)

"You know, when you fell, your name wasn't Winters anymore," Kristina interjected.

"Pardon?" Winters said a bit angrily.

"Well, you weren't _Winters _anymore. You were more like _Fall_."

Amanda, the Tweedles, and Kristina herself laughed a bit at the joke. Winters chuckled a bit, too.

"I never understand cat humor," Stephen scoffed.

"And I never understand _hatter_ humor." Kristina gritted her teeth.

They glared at each other.

Winters stared at the two. "A couple fight? I never knew you two were lovers." Winters examined the two. "Hatter and Cheshire cat," he mumbled.

"WE ARE MOST CERTAINLY _NOT_ LOVERS, FALL!" Kristina and Stephen shrieked. They looked at each other again and said, "Stop doing that!" And then: "Stop being a copy cat!"

"Guys, I thought I told you not to take up the entire chapter," Amanda said.

"Alice has a point," Athena said. "You two already took up 2 special chapters, and we don't need you wasting yet _another_ chapter here."

"Chapter?" Winters wondered.

"Carly-Dee is getting hungry," Carly-Dee said.

"Carlo-Dum as well," Carlo-Dum agreed, copying Carly-Dee by saying it in 3rd person na-rrative.

"You know, addressing yourself in third person isn't going to make you look cool," Stephen said. "Carly-Dee does it by instinct, and we don't need another 3rd person narrator."

"Oh, by the way, Winters, what are you doing out here in the woods?" Athena asked.

"Uhm... I'm on my way home," Winters replied.

"Oh. Well, maybe you could help us. Do you, by any chance, know where there could be food out here in the Forbidden Woods?"

"Well, you could always kill a Pikachu-"

"No!" Amanda interrupted. "No killing any Pikachus!"

"-And you could kill a dragon-"

"That's way too hard," Carlo-Dum said. "Believe me, Carly-Dee and I had a past with those things."

"Carly-Dee agrees." (No need to say who said this.)

"-And there are also teenage mutant ninja turtles-"

"No!" Kristina interrupted, exclaiming. "We wouldn't want Leo, Ralph, Donny, or Mikey to die!"

Stephen made a face. "You _like_ them?"

"They're awesome!" Kristina said, fist pumping.

"-Another suggestion are mutant _gummy bears_-"

"Remember what happened to Ghostgirl?" Stephen pointed out. "We wouldn't want to die right now, or our Earthly counterparts will, too."

"-There are also berry bushes..."

"Berry bushes then," Athena concluded.

"You could have suggested the berry bushes ages ago, Winters," Amanda said.

Winters shrugged.

"Where are the berry bushes, then?" Kristina asked.

Winters froze. "You guys are travelling, right?"

"Yeah...?" they said in chorus.

"Didn't you pack food?"

"We ate them for lunch...," Athena explained.

"_All_ of them?"

"Some were eaten as snacks...," Carly-Dee pointed out.

Winters sighed. "So you're saying that it took a mere 4 hours until you finished EVERY SIN-GLE CRUMB of your food?"

"We only have 5 chocolate bars left," Carlo-Dum interjected.

Winters sighed. "Follow me."

Winters led them upriver, and in no time, they met a mini-field of berry bushes. There were different typed of berries there. There were blackberries (even though they aren't true berries, and is botanically an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets), blueberries, raspberries, and elderberries (or _Sambucus_, if you happen to be a "berry expert").

The berries didn't exactly make them full, but it let them become less dizzy than before. They also brought with them a few more - alright, a _lot_ more - berries, making some kind of berry trail mix, which they stored in a Ziploc, which I personally do not know where it came from, since Wonderland is in the Renaissance period right now, and I doubt that Ziplocs were already invented. But then again, they were invented during 1951, so there is a possibility that Wonderland has one of those. But, then _again_, It's the Renaissance, so there's a possibility that Wonderland's time is set on the 18th century, or 1910's, or even the 1920's.

When they were done stuffing themselves - and fighting over which berry was better - they continued on their journey, but they brought Winters along. They _were_ friends now, after all. Plus, they can't just leave Winters alone. What if they needed more help? What if _he_ needed more help? So they brought him along, just to be sure.

* * *

Winters couldn't take it any longer. They've been walking for 2 hours now. Not that much, but he just can't stand that a human was with them. He felt like he'd give an outburst in any second now...

"Hey, Winters, what's with the face?" Carlo-Dum asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just thinking about something...really hard," Winters replied, mentally slapping himself for being caught.

Now, Winters _really_ wanted to give an outburst.

And one minute pass... Then five minutes pass... Ten minutes pass... Fifteen minutes pass... Twenty minutes pass...

_Oh, God, how long would it take until I get 'home'?!_ Winters thought.

And then he couldn't take it anymore. He finally shouted.

"Argh!"

They all looked towards Winters.

"What's wrong, Winters?" Carly-Dee asked.

"What's _wrong_?!" he exclaimed. "What's wrong with _me_?! Well, what's wrong with all of _you_! _You're_ the ones who are travelling with a _human_! Can't you stand that?! It's been driving me _crazy_, I tell you!

"Oh, and I've realized _this_ long ago: you guys are the Tweedles-" -Winters pointed at Carly-Dee and Carlo-Dum- "-the Mad Hatter-" -he pointed at Stephen- "-the Blue Caterpillar-" -he pointed at Athena- "- and the Cheshire cat!" and then he pointed at Kristina. "You guys are the most well-known characters from Wonderland, and yet you're travelling with a _human_! And I never knew the Cheshire cat and the Mad Hatter _liked_ humans! I thought the Mad Hatter would kill a human-"

"True story," Stephen agreed absent-mindedly.

"-and I thought the Cheshire cat would eat a human!"

"That's gross!" Kristina exclaimed. "Even though I like the taste of blood, I _hate_ the taste of human flesh!"

They stared at Kristina in disbelief. "Blood?"

Kristina coughed. "Carry on, Winters."

"Arghh! Whatever! I _have_ to kill this human! _He _ordered me to!" Winters screamed, about to pounce on Amanda.

"Kristina," Athena mentioned.

Kristina nodded and then she disappeared, and then reappeared behind Winters, grabbing onto his arms as he struggled to get off her grip.

_Gaddammit!_ he thought. He _never told me they were quite strong! I mean, a_ girl _is holding me to keep me from killing a_ human_, she's younger, and she succeeds in doing so!_

_ (Sorry for "boys vs. girls" racist there...)_

"Amanda, use those lightning rods Angelia gave you," Athena instructed.

"Got it." Amanda removed the lightning rods from her belt and aimed them at Winters.

A lightning bolt shot at him.

Winters fell onto the ground, unconscious.

"Okay, guys, what should we do?!" Amanda asked the young Wonderlanders.

"Do what Angelia told us to do," Carlo-Dum said.

"And what's that?"

The young Wonderlanders all faced the unconscious Winters in determination.

"Use our magic," they said in unison, as Winter woke up, realized what happened and got into stance.

(Would you like to play the song on the right? Huh? Would you? What? No? NO?! PLAY IT NOW! o_e)

(Sorry for that.)

"Carly-Dee!" Carlo-Dum exclaimed.

"Got it!" Carly-Dee responded.

They got into a position where Carly-Dee was kneeling right below Carlo-Dum, and Carlo-Dum was standing right above Carly-Dee. Both of them were facing Winters, as Winters spread out his arms, making a snow blizzard hurdle towards them.

"Now!" Carlo-Dum instructed.

They shot at Winters using their Rapid Gun Shot.

A million gun shots flied directly at Winters, as the snow storm hit at the twins. The twins got a few minor scratches from that.

Winters was dragged a bit backwards as he tried to block the Rapid Gun Shots with his arms. There was no harm done to him, but there were a few scratches, though.

Carly-Dee was in dismay. "Our bullets failed again, Carlo-Dum!"

"It's only because he's a Wonderlander! Don't get _too_ frustrated," Carlo-Dum told her.

"My turn!" Kristina exclaimed, getting into stance.

She threw her arms forward and concentrated. Suddenly, spikes made of ice (or, in short, ice spikes) appeared out of her hands and flew towards Winters.

Winters placed his hand forward and a stream of snow came out of it and hit Kristina.

Kristina groaned as the snow hit her, but watched Winters as...

Winters shouted in pain as spiked hit his arms and legs, the scratches getting bigger and blood dripping out of them.

Suddenly, a poisoned knife came flying right beside Winters's left cheek, narrowly missing it.

Winters's eyes widened.

"Argh, what the hell?!" Stephen exclaimed after seeing his fail narrow miss.

Winters looked towards Stephen. He placed his hand under his mouth (think flying kiss) and blew a freezing gust of air towrads Stephen.

Stephen shivered, his back straightening. "Ow, my back straightened!"

"Do it more often," Kristina teased as she blew a little ice crystal she made towards Stephen, making him chill yet again.

"Ow!" Winters suddenly exclaimed as a block of wood hit his forehead. He looked down at the ground and stared at the block of wood which just stayed there, taunting him. "Who threw that?!"

Amanda whistled nervously. You know, just like how Wanda from Fairly Odd Parents does it.

'_And how was _she_ able to hit him?!_' Stephen thought.

Smoke suddenly covered the area.

"Guys," Athena whispered. "Why not combine our powers? Surely that'll defeat young Winters."

"Young Winters?" Carly-Dee wondered. "Isn't Winters older than Athena?"

"I'm not sure... I don't know my age..."

"Oh."

"Whatever! Let's just do it. The fog's disappearing," Stephen interjected.

"Yosh!"

"Right..."

"...On!"

"Yes!"

"Cool!"

They rubbed off the blood on any scratches on them and went into stance as the fog disappeared.

Athena: ^_Smoke Tangle_^ (She controls her smoke to make it wrap around Winters, so as to trap him and not make him run away or anything like that. Kinda like a vine, rope, or something.)

Stephen: ^_Knife Illusion_^ (He makes an illusion of poisoned knives, making it so realistic that Winters would feel it pierce into his skin. This illusion doesn't do any harm, though, much to the Hatter's dismay.)

Carly-Dee and Carlo-Dum: ^_Mud Shot_^ (You guys already know this if you've already read the chapter before the previous one, Chapter 6, "Wilfre". However, since both of them are using it, it becomes stronger and much more sticky and icky.)

Kristina: ^_Ice Spike Garden_^ (Pointy spikes grow on the ground, starting from the wizard up to the enemy. The spikes get bigger as they get closer to the enemy.)

Their powers united, it flies towards Winters, almost knocking him out, but it still kept him standing. Now he was injured indeed, with blood trickling down the sides of his mouth.

"You... You people...are so strong...," Winters says, obviously filled with fatigue.

"But we're not done yet!" Amanda points out.

"Why ever not?" Athena asks.

"Because...," Amanda started as she ran towards Winters. She then kicks him while saying: "Amanda Kick!"

Winters flies up, flipping, and fell onto the ground, defeated. Winters coughs out blood.

Everyone sweat-dropped "'A-Amanda Kick'...?"

"Ouch," Kristina said.

"Guilt?" Stephen said sarcastically.

"I guess so."

"That was sarcasm, idiot! Plus, why would you feel guilty, if he tricked us?!"

Their foreheads were clashed together yet again.

"But still, we were friends with him, right?!" Kristina pushed her forehead.

"He betrayed us! Do you think that's what a friend should do?! Betray each other?!" Stephen pushed his.

"Well, we helped him, didn't we?! And he helped us, right?! That's what friends do, ya dimwit! Help each other!" Kristina pushed.

"Sure, fine, whatever! But friends don't kill each other! He tried to kill Alice!" Stephen's turn.

"The chapter, guys. You might take up the chapter," Amanda interjected.

But the two wouldn't listen. They began brawling.

Amanda faced Carlo-Dum. "Can you 'Carlo-Dum Kick' them?"

Carlo-Dum arched an eyebrow. "'Carlo-Dum Kick'?"

"How?" Winter asked as he sat up.

They all looked towards Winters with a questioning look.

"How'd you do that?" Winters said once more.

"The unison thing?" Carlo-Dum asked.

Winters nodded.

"We used our powers at the same time," Stephen explained.

"And they were able to mix together," Athena continued.

"But it also worked double...," Carly-Dee started.

"...because of the power of friendship!" Carlo-Dum finished.

"Friends...?" Winters muttered sadly. His face looked forlorn. "I don't have any friends."

"Well, you helped us a while ago, didn't you?" Kristina grinned.

"And we wanted to help you, too, by bringing you home, remember?" Carly-Dee smiled.

"And friends help each other," Athena agreed, nodding.

"And it means...," Stephen started for all of them.

"...We're friends!" they sang in chorus.

Winters looked at one of them one by one.

The Blue Caterpillar, Athena Sapienta...

The Tweedle-Dee twin, Tweedle Carly-Dee...

The Tweedle-Dum twin, Tweedle Carlo-Dum...

The Cheshire cat, Kristina Cheshire...

The Mad Hatter, Stephen Hightopp...

And the Human, Amanda "Alice" Toren...

Comrades. Allies. Friends. A team.

He smiled along with them.

"Oh, hey, Winters?" Amanda said.

"Yes?" Winters responded, facing her.

"Who told you to...kill me?"

Winters froze. No. He can't. He can't tell them. No! He can't! He just ca-!

"Wilfre."

Okay, so maybe he _can_...

Everyone got shocked.

It was Wilfre's trick.

"So...are you his servant...?" Carlo-Dum asked.

"Sort of."

"Do you hate him?" Stephen asked.

"For killing my family, yes."

"Why'd he kill your family?!" Amanda exclaimed.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Did he send you here to wait for us?" Athena asked.

"Yes. But I just thought of staying by the river to avoid you. It never occurred to me that you'd pass by."

"Why do you want to avoid us?" Kristina asked.

"I have no intention of battling you. But somehow, I just lost it and gave an unusual outburst."

"Well, is Winters going to leave Wilfre and be part of _Wandārando-sama Hyūman_,* or is he still going to follow Wilfre's orders?" Carly-Dee asked.

Everyone but Winters sweat-dropped. "'_Wandārando-sama Hyūman'_?"

* * *

*******_Wandārando-sama Hyūman_**** is Japanese for ****_Wonderlanders' Human_****. It was just random, and the Korean version, which is ****_Wonderlanders' Ingan,_**** didn't suit well. Also the Latin one which is ****_Wonderlanders' Humanum_****, and the Greek one which is ****_Wonderlanders' Anthro̱píno̱n, _****and the Chinese one which is ****_Wonderlanders' Ren. _****But maybe the Chinese one is also good, but, EH, oh well.**

* * *

"I'm not sure...," Winters said.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in Wonderland...

"Dammit, Winters!" Wilfre exclaimed as he watched the scene from a crystal ball. He pounded his fist on the table. "I told you to get rid of them and capture the human, not make friends with them!"

He got up and walked towards his hostage: Lysia Snow the White Rabbit. He placed a finger under her chin and made her look towards him.

"It seems your dear friends are looking for you," Wilfre told the helpless White Rabbit. "But don't worry, I can get _rid_ of them."

"Don't you _dare_ lay your filthy hands on them!" Lysia growled, trying to break free from the magic-absorbing handcuffs that Wilfre placed on her.

Wilfre chuckled evilly.

"Kyaaaaaahhhh!"

* * *

Kristina and Amanda froze.

"Was that...?" Amanda wondered.

"...Lysia...?" Kristina finished the thought.


	10. IX - Pumpkins, Rifles, and Hybrids

**[[RoseLocket wrote this]]**

* * *

_Kristina and Amanda froze._

_ "Was that..." Amanda wondered._

_ "...Lysia...?" Kristina finished the thought._

"Lysia's in trouble!" the cat shrieked.

Everybody stopped walking and looked at her, though only Amanda could understand her.

"Uh, what?" Stephen said.

"Didn't you hear her?" Kristina demanded. "Come on, you guys should've heard that! It was Lysia!"

"Yeah..." Carlo-Dum said, not looking so convinced.

"Carly-Dee doesn't hear anything," Carly-Dee said. "And nor does Carly-Dee see Lysia around."

"Come on, guys!" Kristina groaned and turned to Amanda. "Didn't you hear it, too, Alice?"

"...Yeah..." Amanda said, nodding slowly.

Kristina turned to the group with a relieved smile on her face. "See?"

"Maybe you need some tuna," Stephen suggested.

"Shut up, you stupid, half-deaf Hatter!" Kristina said. She looked by Athena to stare at Winters. "Didn't you hear it, Winters?"

Winters looked back at her for a moment, tilted his head slightly to the side as if trying to hear better in the distance, then shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry, but I don't know," he replied earnestly. "There's something...blocked in my mind...like a gaping, unfilled hole..."

"What hole?" Carlo-Dum asked.

"Ah, it must've been my connection to Wilfre," Winters said, nodding to himself as he got the idea. "Since I've practically cut my alliance with him by befriending you guys, he seems to have cut off his connection to me, a little like telepathy. He and I never actually met—he only told me to work for him to get rid of you guys and get the human, and he guided me to the forest and said that I should wait there for you.

"But of course you still surprised me, because I never thought you'd be the one to find me by the river." He smiled a little. "Since I'm practically a part of nature—the force of nature called 'winter,'" Winters spread his arms as if gesturing to himself and the snowy environment around him, "I've got some rather good hearing, to admit. I'd be able to hear a dodo bird's call more than a mile away, and I would've heard your friend Lysia's voice if it were important."

"So you didn't hear her," Kristina said, gritting her teeth and hissing at the air. "Because she's with that bastard Wilfre!"

"Angelia said this before," Carlo-Dum said, looking up thoughtfully.

"He's probably torturing her now," Kristina said. "We'll have to go save her quickly!"

"_Wandarando-sama Hyuman_ go! To save Lysia!" Carly-Dee said with a fist pump.

Kristina beamed at her, her hands on her hips and smiling even though she looked like she was about to throw a fit a second ago.

Stephen made a disgusted look on his face. "Really, how much cornier are you guys gonna get?" he said.

Athena, from where she was sitting on her mushroom, lightly kicked Stephen in the back the way a person would nudge a person's arm when that person is trying being rude. He simply frowned at her.

"That _is_ a nice name," Athena said with a little smile (referring to their romaji group name). "But shouldn't we get going now?"

"Right," Carlo-Dum said while Amanda nodded in agreement, then they resumed their walk.

They were unaware of a pair of eyes watching them amidst the many leaves on the branches of a tall tree, eyeing especially Winters.

_I've found them_, the girl telepathically whispered.

_Good. Remember your orders—kill them all and spare only the human._

* * *

"I'm tired!" Amanda declared, slumping down on a nearby log.

"Carly-Dee's hungry!" Carly-Dee announced, slumping down beside Amanda.

"I need tea," Stephen muttered.

Athena looked around. "It seems as though this place could make a good campsite for the while," she said. "I suppose we could stop here."

"Finally!" Kristina said, dropping her backpack on the ground. She zipped it open, took out a canister of a certain kind of fish and started eating them up.

Stephen sighed and went over to a nearby tree, sliding down so he was leaning on the trunk. "It's lunch time, I think," he said, looking up at the sky. "But all I want is tea, so—"

"Hatter, I don't suppose you are allowed to only have tea for lunch," Athena interrupted. "We must have a good meal that could get us going until dinner time. And chocolate isn't good enough."

"Oh, come on," Stephen groaned.

Athena looked around one more time and smiled faintly. "Do you see," she said, "that there's lesser snow in here?"

She was right. Unlike before, where snow covered every inch of the ground, there was less snow here, but it was still a little cold. It was like the October air or something.

"Yeah," Carly-Dee said.

"We're still in the same forest, though," Winters said, jamming his hands in his pockets. "This forest is, as you all know, very big. It seems to change as you go, but it's still the same forest with different parts according to appearance and atmosphere."

"Awesome!" Stephen muttered, waving his hand dismissively and not even looking at Winters, earning himself another kick from Athena, who happened to be sitting on her mushroom beside his tree.

"We should start looking for food," said Athena. "As in, animals in the forest that we could cook and eat."

"I'll lead the hunt!" Kristina volunteered, raising a hand as she got to her feet, bow in her hand already. Her quiver and empty tuna canister lay by her feet.

"Good," Athena said. "Winters, would you like to join?"

"Uh..." Winters looked down at his hands, a little hesitant. "I don't think I'd be so useful since I have absolutely no experience hunting animals before, so I'll just stay here." That statement sounded a bit suspicious, like he'd do something funny during part of the group's absence, but Athena looked at him meaningfully for a while before deciding something.

"We will leave Carlo-Dum here, but Kristina, Stephen, Carly-Dee and Alice must go," she said.

"What?!" Carlo-Dum exclaimed. "Why're you guys leaving me alone here with Winters?!"

"I'm staying as well, Carlo-Dum, so there is no need to worry about any danger," Athena assured him, smirking a little.

_That danger meaning me_, Winters thought a little remorsefully, looking down at his hands, but he was a little used to not being trusted so much. The only person so far to trust him with something besides these people here was Wilfre, but even he had backups for when Winters turned against him.

"Hey! I do well with a mallet!" Carlo-Dum cried.

"But we aren't playing whack-a-mole in the forest. Carlo-Dum," Carly-Dee snickered, taking her rifle out of no where.

"But I'm fast!" Carlo-Dum whined.

"Whatever, let's just go!" Kristina said, disappearing and then appearing about seven feet away, a grin on her face as she was excited about hunting again with her bow and arrow. "Carlo, try making yourself useful by helping Athena and Winters set up camp, won't 'cha?"

Carlo-Dum pouted.

"Come on!" Kristina waved to the group before running into the forest, followed by Carly-Dee, Stephen and Amanda.

Kristina slowed into a walk to allow the group to catch up with her, eyes darting around and eager to look for something to shoot at, ears twitching up and down and her tail swishing behind her. She just loooooved using her bow and arrow in opportunities like this when you know you're the best at it.

"Kristina! There! A turtle!" she heard Amanda call out.

Even without looking directly at where Amanda was pointing at, Kristina knew exactly where to point her ever-so-sharp arrow at. She whirled around and readied her bow and arrow, the pointed tip of her arrow right in between her target's eyes which is her preferred spot when the target was close, and Carly-Dee burst into a fit of giggles along with Amanda as Stephen's scowl went deeper and he pushed the bow and arrow sideways so as not to get it pointed at his face anymore.

"You really want to cook a turtle?" he asked.

Kristina shrugged and lowered her bow, trying to hide her smile (which was quite hard, since she already _is_ smiling-ahem, _grinning_). "Alice told me," she said.

Stephen glared at the said girl, who just laughed. He then huffed and continued on, [almost] tripping over a bug in the process. The three girls followed him.

"Really, I don't get why I have to go with you guys when I don't really even have much experience hunting for woodland creatures," he muttered.

"It wasn't our idea—it was the Caterpillar's!" Kristina said, still stifling her giggle.

Stephen simply scowled at her, narrowing his eyes.

"There! I found one!" Kristina said before aiming her arrow at a small, fluffy animal that looked like the mix of a rabbit and a kitten. She released her arrow at the rabbit-cat hybrid before it could hurry away, but her arrow ended up hitting the root of a tree where it used to sit on. The rabbit-cat thing had now disappeared, as if it were simply a projected image. "What the—?"

Carly-Dee and she went closer to look at it and discovered that the rabbit-cat hybrid had really disappeared in thin air. Kristina gritted her teeth and retrieved her arrow.

It was Stephen's turn to laugh.

"How dare you?!" Kristina demanded, fuming.

"You aimed an arrow at me," Stephen reminded her.

"Yeah, but it doesn't really mean that you can go around tricking people with illusions and causing me to waste my arrows!"

"That's what illusions are for—tricking people," Stephen said with the laughter faded from his face and replaced with the signature frown.

"Yeah, well, how 'bout we go try to see who can get the most in this forest?" Kristina challenged with a smirk, crossing her arms over her chest. "The one who loses will have to skin all of them."

"Fine." Stephen rolled his eyes then started heading west from the group.

Kristina disappeared in thin air then reappeared, perched on a tree branch around thirty-five or so feet high off the ground. She readied her bow and watched around like a hawk. "Carly-Dee, Alice, you're part of this," she told them.

"Hey, I can't hunt alone," Amanda told her.

"That is okay," Carly-Dee told her, putting a hand on Amanda's shoulder. "Stay close to Carly-Dee, and then we will hunt together. Alice will look for the animal and Carly-Dee will shoot it. After all, Angelia said not to leave Alice alone, which also means to stay together." Despite her last statement, they began moving away from the tree Kristina was perched on, chatting together.

Kristina continued looking around, tail curved up behind her, ears continuously moving up and down, trying to get something.

Finally, she spotted what looked like a cross between a dog and an antelope, moving around on its paws which had something like hooves under them and sniffing around. Kristina readied her bow and arrow, focused on the target, then released the arrow. The dog-antelope hybrid fell on the ground, dead.

Kristina appeared right next to it, pulling her arrow out from between it eyes and gathering her first kill up. She had a smile on her face as she turned around and said, "Hey guys, check it ou—"

_Oh wait_, she thought. _We split up..._ She sighed and put the arrow back in her quiver, taking the dog-antelope and going over to her tree to hide it under its roots, which provided enough space and shadow to hide it from sight for temporary storage. She pushed it underneath it then straightened up.

That was when she felt something wrap around her ankle.

Instinctively she whirled around and aimed her arrow at whatever was grasping her ankle, but she found herself pointing the arrow at a thin unburied root of the tree that had somehow coiled itself around Kristina's foot. She sighed then attempted to shake out of the root's hold. However the more she moved, the more the root's grasp around her ankle tightened. She got the feeling this stupid thing was doing it on purpose.

At last she managed to snap the root right off the tree's trunk, and its hold loosened around her ankle. Kristina reached over and snatched the root off her foot, throwing it away afterwards.

But then she saw that the tree had changed appearance.

Right on the trunk where anybody could see it, there were eyes that were hollow, dark and appearing as if angry. Its mouth was big and hollow as well, the tips curved up in an open-mouthed, toothless, sinister grin. It was like your basic horror trees that were used as decorations for Halloween parties.

The tree let out a deep, bellowing laugh, kind of like a creepier version of Santa Clause (but Santa is already creepy enough, considering he's a stalker who makes out with your mom, but whatever). Then its long, twisted branches moved in a way a mental hospital patient would flail his arms around, trying to grab something. But the tree seemed smarter than a mental hospital patient, because it quickly grabbed Kristina with both branchy hands and lift her in the air, causing her to drop her bow and arrow to the ground. It wasn't very useful against a tree, anyway—even the best archers ever have missed their target sometimes and have to irritably go over and retrieve the arrow which had its point buried in tree bark instead of the satisfying animal's eye socket.

"Argh!" she grunted, trying to wriggle her way out of the tree's grasp, but to no avail.

The tree simply grinned at her and said something not totally indistinguishable, like: "Yo making tea?" or simply "Yummy kitty" before slowly bringing Kristina to his mouth, which opened and widened as Kristina came closer.

Kristina struggled again and then remembered something so important that she couldn't believe she'd actually forgotten it. "You ugly thing!" she shrieked before using her Ice Magic powers to start a hard, cold layer of ice to spread from the tree's fingertips to the trunk, where it quickly started covering it in crystal-like ice and causing it to stop its movements.

"_NGEOOOORRRRRRWWWHHHHH!"_ the tree bellowed before being completely frozen by ice.

Kristina willed the ice around her to break—it was a little hard, to be honest—and along with the pieces of tree bark and ice debris she lithely dropped to the ground on her feet, picking up her bow and arrow and shouldering her quiver. She looked up at the tree in confusion. She'd never seen a tree do something like this before, not in all her Wonderland years. Though she admits to have had an argument with an old willow tree about those squirrels that lived inside it, trying to get him to allow her to eat them up, but that was another story. Besides, the tree didn't appear to be able to move his branches in such a way this guy did it.

Then another important thing she never should've forgotten came back to her. She widened her eyes and started looking around frantically for certain people.

_"Never leave Alice alone."_

Sure, she was now alone going through the forest with Carly-Dee, but she didn't seem to have enough defenses from Wilfre, wherever he is, but he was surely after her. Carly-Dee alone might be unable to protect her to the utmost.

"DAMMIT!" a voice cried out in the distance, followed by a familiar bellowing.

"Cat comes to the rescue," Kristina muttered under her breath before turning and hurrying towards the direction the Hatter went off on.

* * *

"Yay~!" Carly-Dee cheered, laughing. Behind her, she dragged the corpse of a deer with elephant-like ears and ram's horns on its head, the gunshot wound on its skull still bleeding. In her other hand she held her shotgun. "Carly-Dee has a feeling that we might be able to win this challenge! Thanks to Alice's good eyesight and Carly-Dee's fast shooting abilities, we won't be the ones responsible for the job of skinning animals~!"

"Yeah, sure," Amanda replied. In one hand she held by the ears two dead rabbits with fluffy, light lavender fur and a small, silver unicorn horn on their heads. They looked quite adorable—a shame they had to kill them. But Amanda had already taken a peek at their teeth and decided that she was glad Carly-Dee shot them. "You know, maybe we're gonna have a little too much for lunch."

"Then we shall save some!" Carly-Dee said. "Besides, there's around like—" Carly-Dee mentally counted in her head "—seven of us, including Winters. Plus, if Lysia's feeling a little hungry if we ever find her, we can give her some of our share! There's a likely chance Wilfre will deprive Lysia of food for a while. Poor rabbit!"

"Yeah..." Amanda slowly nodded in understanding. But as far as she knew, during lunchtime in school, Lysia spent a lot of time with Kristina and chatted with her while Kristina was eating lunch (or, at least, pretended to, since she's not fond of eating lunch), and apparently Lysia had a lot of time to spare even if it meant not eating her food, and didn't seem disturbed by it (besides the fact she also bribes Kristina into using her money to buy some _Wagnum_ ice cream for lunch (which became a routine that broke after the New Year came), most of the time resulting in her being broke right away).

"Wow! Score!" Carly-Dee suddenly squealed, pointing at something with her rifle. Amanda followed her gaze in confusion and saw that she was pointing at a pumpkin, just sitting there on the base of a tree, a few vines around it.

Carly-Dee impulsively hurried over, slinging her gun over her back, then peered at the pumpkin. "It looks edible," she said when Amanda came over to see as well.

"There might be rats inside," Amanda suggested.

"Carly-Dee doesn't like rats!"

"Try lifting the pumpkin."

Carly-Dee bent over and attempted to carry the pumpkin. It looked just as heavy as a filled piggy bank, so Carly-Dee was able to cradle it in her hands a little awkwardly. "Does Alice think we can bring this back?" she asked.

"I don't know," Amanda responded with a shrug. "Not sure if the others would like that, besides Athena, since she's a...bug."

"But—"

"Let's just leave it there," Amanda instructed. "We got enough, anyway. Next time when we come across it we'll eat the insides then we'll turn it into a jack-o-lantern or fill it with rats and give it to Cinderella."

"Cinderella? Cinderella's such a dramatic princess," Carly-Dee huffed, setting the pumpkin back on the ground. "Cinderella's prince fell in love with her for her shoe! Her freaking shoe! Carly-Dee think's that's disgusting. Footwear helps you find love? Pshaw."

"Actually, the prince only fell in love with her after she showed up in the ball as the prettiest woman there, but maybe he's a picky guy after all because he didn't even ask for her name when they first met. Which ended up in a lot of bad stuff," Amanda said, referring to the third Disney Cinderella movie and recalling how annoying the mice and the nameless blockhead of a prince himself were.

"And can you believe that prince's name is actually—" Carly-Dee interrupted herself mid-sentence.

"What?" Amanda asked, still observing the pumpkin.

When a few seconds ticked by and Carly-Dee still hadn't answered her, Amanda turned around to look at where she was and found herself facing the air.

Amanda blinked, and then suddenly she wasn't on the ground anymore.

Something had coiled itself around her waist, brought her more than four feet into the air and started swinging her around as if she were some plastic rattle or something. It was as if she were on those rides in the carnival that spin you round and round until a minute has passed, and she fought the urge to vomit.

Then she heard something whizzing nearby, and then she was abruptly released and thrown to the ground with enough force to make her roll a few times before hitting a nearby tree, the back of her head receiving the worst from it.

"_THE PUMPKIN IS EATING CARLYYYYYYYYY-DEE!"_ she heard Carly-Dee shriek, and through the dancing black spots in front of her eyes she could see something big and orange with some hollow part on the front part of it, into which the struggling figure of Carly-Dee was being dragged into with long green stuff.

As her vision cleared, she saw a figure pounce on the top of the orange thing and stab something right into its core. The whole thing shuddered, and the figure leapt from it and landed on the ground with grace as the long green stuff—vines—shrivelled up and lay dead around Carly-Dee. The giant pumpkin that was trying to drag her into it had turned into a sickly brown-green color and looked like a nine-foot-tall rotten apple. It had a large, dark hole on the front of it, like the mouth of a cave, now appearing like a large frown.

Carly-Dee untangled herself from the vines wrapped around her body and stood up, brushing herself off. Then she picked up her rifle a few feet away, ran over to Amanda and helped her up.

"Is Alice alright?!" she fussed, shaking her arm repeatedly. "Is Alice's skull not dented? Is Alice's brain not mush?! Is Alice's—?"

"Yeah, Amanda's not hurt!" Amanda interrupted, pulling her arm out of the Tweedle's grasp. She was starting to get annoyed with Carly-Dee's manner of speaking in third person (considering her name is always being said incorrectly).

"What a relief to hear that!" a voice said, and the two looked to the direction of the speaker and saw a girl, maybe around 16, standing right beside the motionless, now-taking-on-the-unappetizing-color-of-poop pumpkin. She had wavy, blond hair tied up in a ponytail with an oak green ribbon, a fair complexion, and large, oak green eyes. She wore an off-shoulder blouse which nearly reached the knee, oak green leggings covering up until the middle part of her feet, a vintage-like, brown necklace with two oak green beads, and a matching bracelet. She was smiling at them cheerfully, a hand on her waist and her eyes sparkling.

"Who are you?" Carly-Dee asked.

The girl giggled and walked towards them. Carly-Dee tensed next to Alice and took a little step in front of her protectively, hand on her rifle. "I'm Autumn," the girl said, holding her hand out for a handshake. "But I'm not going to allow you to call me 'Fall'."

"Why?" Carly-Dee asked.

"Because it's...insulting...under insulting circumstances," Autumn said, her hand dropping to her side as she shrugged. "'Oh, look, Fall fell on the sidewalk! Ha-ha-ha!' It's annoying. And then there's this thing about them using it against the others, like: 'Spring became 'Fall' when she tripped on this old turtle a while ago! Ha-ha-ha!' Really, it's annoying."

"Yeah..." Amanda muttered.

"So, anyways, what're your names?" Autumn asked.

"Carly-Dee. Alice," Carly-Dee said, gesturing to herself and then to Amanda when saying their names. "We hope Autumn doesn't do us any harm, because Carly-Dee will shoot her if she does," she added.

Autumn laughed. "Oh, that's quite alright." She viewed Amanda with interest. "You look adorable, Alice!"

"Uhh..." Amanda nodded.

"Hey, do you guys—"

"HEY!"

Everyone turned to the side to see an arrow pointed right to the side of Autumn's head. Kristina glared at her, ready to shoot. "Who're _you_?" she suspiciously.

"I'm—"

"Next time, don't just _disappear_ when you're leading someone—!" Stephen ran up to them, panting. But when he noticed Autumn, he stopped abruptly.

Autumn smiled at the two newcomers as if there wasn't an arrow about to shoot her anytime pointing at her head. "I'm Autumn," she said. "Are these your friends?"

"Why are _you_ here?" Kristina asked, not lowering her bow.

"Well, I saw two cute little girls in trouble, so I tried my best to save them," Autumn said, pointing at the giant pumpkin.

Kristina and Stephen looked at the dead plant for a moment.

"So you guys got attacked...," Stephen murmured.

"...By a vegetable," Kristina finished.

"They could be dangerous," Autumn said.

The Cat and the Hatter exchanged looks, then Kristina said, "When we separated, we saw trees trying to attack us a while ago. How did it become a pumpkin for you guys?"

"There was this normal-sized pumpkin lying around," Amanda explained. "It turned into a monster and tried to eat Carly."

"Yes! It did!" Carly-Dee confirmed.

"Probably for revenge because she wanted to eat it in the first place."

"Hey!"

"How'd you save them?" Kristina asked Autumn.

The blonde smiled and backed up a step. "With this!" Suddenly she had a six-foot spear in her hand, colored brownish and topped with a wilted flower. The weapon had dead vines circling it.

"What's that?" Carly-Dee asked.

"It's a special weapon of mine that I use against creatures like the pumpkin," Autumn said, handling her spear with pride. "It drains the life out of that particular creature until they're dead. It works great with plants and humans, but not exactly other life forms such as fellow Wonderlanders."

"OK," Kristina said. "So if you'd be so kind as to keep the weapon for now and tell us more about why you just decided to come up and talk to us?"

Autumn's spear disappeared in thin air, and she sighed. "I wanted to help these two because they looked utterly helpless—and adorable—" She giggled "—and when I discovered that one of them was one of the famous Tweedle twins I got surprised. Then the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter comes along! How exciting this day is!" Autumn clapped her hands and giggled again, as if she were a lot younger than how she appeared. She looked a little taller than Stephen. "Mind if I come along with you guys?"

Everyone's suspicious looks went even more suspicious.

"Why?" Carly-Dee asked.

"Well, where're you guy's heading, anyway?" Autumn asked, looking at her nails as if Kristina weren't pointing her arrow at her again.

Amanda, Carly-Dee, Kristina and Stephen all exchanged looks. If only Athena the mind-reader were here.

"It's...business," Carly-Dee ended up saying. "We're looking for something."

Autumn nodded. "Ah, I see. Guess we're doing the same thing. I'm also looking for something."

"And what's that?" Stephen muttered.

A noticeable gleam in Autumn's eyes made her look a little more...mischievous. "Someone special," she said, giving everyone a Mona Lisa smile. Then she shrugged and her smile went into a full grin. "Who knows, maybe I can find them while I'm with you guys!"

"So...you're going with us?" Kristina said.

"Yeah. It'll be fun!"

* * *

Apparently, Autumn's search had ended pretty quickly when they reached camp.

"WINTERSS!" she'd called out, pouncing and tackling the poor boy.

The two went rolling on the ground as everyone watched, and finally Autumn released Winters and introduced herself to Athena and Carlo-Dum. She explained that Winters was her friend's little brother, who'd run away and was missing for two entire days. Winters kept looking anxious with Autumn's arm around his shoulders, as if he wanted to tell something to the group but the short glaring glances Autumn was shooting him kept stopping him every time he tried to do it.

After eating (Athena just magically had all the hunted animals all skinned and ready to be cooked because Kristina decided to cancel the idea of the loser of their challenge having to do the skinning)., the sky suddenly went dark and Athena explained that it was natural considering they were in Wonderland and that they should probably catch a few winks for a while. Autumn insisted that she and Winters stay with them for just one night before she could return him to her friend, and so Athena allowed Winters to use her sleeping bag while Autumn slept on the ground using a bag as a pillow, claiming that it was comfortable on the ground. Athena took first watch for the night.

When she was sure everybody had dozed off already, she leaned against the tree behind her mushroom and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She stayed in that place for a time.

Then her eyes shot open when she felt someone try to step on the boundary of one of the small invisible force fields she'd set up around her friends (unknown to them).

"Don't move!" Carly-Dee cried, her rifle aiming at the person standing over the form of Amanda.

"What?" Amanda muttered sleepily, getting up and rubbing her eyes. "What's going on?"

"Alice," Athena called out in warning.

Amanda looked up and stared.

The blonde girl standing right next to Amanda smiled at everyone awake, her hand gripping tightly the back of an unconscious Winters's collar. "I guess I act a little too soon," she said, giggling. "But why bother pretending any longer?"

Then something grabbed Athena from behind, and the surprise caused the force fields around her friends to disappear. It was hard and rough-surfaced, and it was circling around her waist, her upper arms, her mouth and her neck. Her legs got caught as well when her mushroom suddenly disappeared. Athena only struggled a little—she immediately knew that these were the kinds of stuff that get more of you when you struggle more—but she felt as if the power was quickly being drained out of her, leaving her unable to try to break free from her bonds.

She tried to call out to the others, but more of whatever was wrapping around her body—pulling her into something—tightened the pressure around her mouth and nose, leaving her unable to breathe and only muster grunts. She saw some powder being released in front of Amanda, making her fall back into her sleeping bag seemingly asleep, and Carly-Dee being scooped into the air by her foot. Her rifle was left on her blanket.

The last she saw was of Autumn looking up regretfully at the moon before, for the first time, she entered the world known as sleep.


	11. X - Memories, Cards, and Suits

【 Amanda in Wonderland 】

**[[RennRaven wrote this]]**

* * *

**The Wandarando, Winters, and Autumn may or may not be OOC (out of character) here, so sorry in advance. (However, I always thought that Autumn would be a happy person with a smile that hides everything sad and tragic...not a sadistic b*tch.)**

**Dedication: To anyone or no one that could be reading me and RoseLocket's story**

**Warning: Language, Drunkards**

* * *

Amanda's world turned slowly turned into darkness once Autumn blew that weird powder at her.

* * *

Athena slowly woke up. She noticed that she was tied to a tree. The rest of the Wandarando were also tied to trees. Except for Amanda, who was tied up next to Autumn and Winters. Winters was tied up as well and had handcuffs, his face filled with guilt and regret. The only one who wasn't tied was Kristina, who was stuck in her cat form and handcuffed-or should I say PAWCUFFED-to a rock.

Autumn grinned.

She took out a knife and sliced Amanda's cheek.

"Wonderlanders should be much more careful when they make friends with a petty and helpless human, no?" Autumn insulted. "And to think you were the "heroes" of this story. How pathetic."

Winters gritted his teeth. 'It's like she has an alter ego now... What's wrong with her?' he thought. 'Wouldn't Autumn be scared of people dying because of what happened before? That...' He tried hard not to remember. He snapped out of his thoughts once Autumn grabbed him by the neck.

"What were you thinking!?" Autumn screamed.

No. I shouldn't. I mustn't let her know.

"Huh!? Winters!"

Shut up...

"How f*cking stupid are you!?"

Shut up!

"I guess I really was right in my decision to HATE guys!"

I SAID SHUT UP!

Winters grabbed Autumn's arm and threw it away. He stood up, ripping the ropes and breaking the handcuffs while at it.

"Why would you hate guys?!" he snapped. "Don't you remember when I saved you from that guard who threatened to kill you? Don't you remember seeing me "die" when you were younger? Don't you remember that I, as your brother, wanted you to keep living even if I die!"

Autumn's eyes widened. "Bro...ther...?"

The boy slowly fell on the girl, bloody from the slash that the servant guard from a rivaling household did to him.

The girl's eyes widened.

He had saved her life, risking his own.

The girl burst into tears.

"BROTHER!"

Autumn grabbed at her hair, screaming.

"Shut up! He died! He died because of me!" she growled at white-haired boy. "How dare you say you're him!? He can't be f*cking alive! He can't-!"

"Just think about it," Winters slowly said. "Do I not seem familiar to you?"

Autumn cried as she made her spear appear. "Shut up, damnit!"

She slashed at him, but Winters merely dodged by swaying to the side.

Autumn kept slashing and slashing, but she didn't have much strength due to that memory uncovering from its hiding spot at the back of Autumn's mind.

Winters dodged each slice silently.

Autumn screamed and slashed at him, Winters stopping her by grabbing her arm before the spear could even touch him.

Autumn looked at Winters, tears streaming from her face.

Winters stared back at her.

'Those eyes... look like Shi's...'

Autumn slowly closed her eyes.

Winters dropped her hand once she gave up.

She made her spear disappear

"Sorry...," Autumn said slowly. "...brother. "

Winters smiled softly. "It's fine."

Autumn fell onto the ground. "I only did it because of you."

Winters arched an eyebrow.

The rest kept silent, especially since their mouths were tied.

"I only wanted to bring the Human to Wilfre because I thought I could see you again," she explained. "Wilfre told me that when you die you get sent to another dimension in another timeline. I thought that maybe he would bring you back to me as a reward."

"Once you love someone, they stay in your heart no matter where they go," Winters said.

'What's with the random quotes?' Amanda wondered, sighing.

Winters made a spear appear out of nowhere. He tapped it on the ground, where a rune appeared, lighting up. He placed is hand forward, in the direction of Autumn, where an arcane appeared under her, lighting up.

"lanua magika," he whispered.

Autumn slowly disappeared, together with the light and the arcane as it grew smaller until it was gone altogether.

"Hey, where'd she go?" Amanda asked once Winters untied her.

Winters explained that he teleported her to the White Queen's castle, and that he will go there as well.

Kristina turned back to her human form once she was un-cuffed.

"Does there happen to be any town nearby?" Athena asked once she was untied. "I mean, really, you people appear out of nowhere like all you do is teleport."

Winters untied Stephen.

He shrugged. "I'm not so sure," he said. "I actually DID teleport here. But I recall someone saying that there's a small city with a casino at the end of this forest."

As the ropes were scorched in a fire, Winters explained everything.

"I'm sure you just heard that Autumn and I are related by blood," he started. "Well, since she has blond hair, and I have silver, it's obvious I dyed it. And I made up that story about me being in another dimension and timeline and told it to Wilfre to tell it to Autumn. As for my pseudonym, 'Winters', I got it from my name, 'Shiki', which means 'winter'.

"And, why, yes, I lied about my entire family being killed by Wilfre. Yes, they were all killed-except for my sister. But it was a rivaling household named Macka that killed our family. And burned the house down."

Kristina's eyes widened. 'Macka...,' she thought. 'I recall that Duchess talked about them once...'

"This family called Macka...," Athena said. "Do you know anyone there?"

Winters thought about it but couldn't recall anything, but he did tell them that half of them were cat-human hybrids.

Hearing that, they all looked towards Kristina.

The Cheshire Cat laughed nervously. "Just 'cause I'm the only cat-human hybrid you know, doesn't mean it's instantly me, guys."

The rest shrugged and looked back at Winters, who had his spear tapped on the floor, where there was an arcane lighting up under it and him.

"lanua magika," he muttered.

He slowly disappeared the same way that Autumn did, but before he was completely gone, he suggested that they could go in the casino, incognito, and spy on suspicious-looking people.

When the arcane and light disappeared, silence filled the air.

You could hear a pin drop.

If there were any pins in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.

"Seems like a good idea. We shall try it, yes?" Athena suggested.

* * *

The next day...

They arrived in the said city by 12.00nn, and immediately rented a house and ate lunch.

Well, at least most of them did.

Apparently, two certain people didn't feel like eating.

Cheshire made up an excuse that she was allergic to sushi (even though the Tweedles once saw her eat a bunch of sushi when they were invited to the Duchess' mansion).

As for Carlo-Dum, he laughed nervously and explained that he never really liked raw fish with seaweed and rice and unripe mango and whatnot.

His twin sister started to mock him by savoring the California Maki with gusto.

(To make things clear, Wonderland is set in the Renaissance, but they have advanced technology/magic and a few 20th century food, e.g. burgers, hotdogs, fries, and stuff...no soda though. Basically, I have no idea if they're in the 20th, 19th, or 18th century. Which is why I simply named the years in this story as XX99 (Wonderland Time) and XX04 (Earth Time). When you travel through the dimensions, you do not add or subtract a number in your age. And yes, I am aware that sushi was made in the 15th century...)

The girl's twin just stared at her in envy.

'God, I'm hungry,' Carlo-Dum thought.

The boy schlepped to the table and ate 2 sushi, no more no less. He kept to himself that he actually kinda liked it.

* * *

They went to the casino as Abina (Amanda), Julie (Athena), Legretta (Carly-Dee), Shino (Carlo-Dum), Arrietty (Kristina), and Elliot (Stephen).

As Abina, Amanda had her hair tied in a loose pony tail, instead of her usual high one which I simply don't get how she gets it up. She wore a white shirt with black trimmings, a pair of pants, a white and black vest, and a gray scarf. She also had some random golden armlet on which she found lying on the ground somewhere in the house.

As Julie, Athena had her hair let it be, and wore a zipped up, long-sleeved, yellow-orange jacket with white trimmings over an orange shirt. She had a scarf wrapped around her neck, wore olive green leggings and a pair of orange flats.

As Legretta, Carly-Dee had her hair tied in a loose ponytail with a big white ribbon/bow, and two thick strands of hair (let's say that they're...bangs) framed her face. She wore a black jacket with gold trimmings over a striped, pink and white blouse, a pair of black shorts with golden trimmings, and a pair of black boots with gold trimmings. A leather belt held up her shorts and a shotgun that wasn't too obvious.

As Shion, Carlo-Dum had his hair in a loose ponytail his bangs swept to the right side of his forehead, leaving the left side exposed. He wore a black jacket with white trimmings over a white, button-up blouse, a red necktie was tied around his neck, and a pair of black pants with white trimmings held up by a brown belt, and a pair of blue, white, and black shoes. He hid a shotgun in his jacket.

As Arrietty, Kristina had her hair tied by a ribbon in a small ponytail to the right side of her head with the rest of the hair loose, and a few of her hair was slightly red (dyed) and some were slightly blue (natural). She wore a baggy white shirt with red sleeves over a black tank top, a knee-length, black skirt, a pair of gray boots, and a pair of brown, fingerless gloves. She still wore her glasses.

As Elliot, Stephen had not much black (to his dismay) and didn't wear glasses, instead contacts, but he did still bring his glasses with him (in case). He wore a white coat with black trimmings, a striped, black and white shirt, a pair of black pants held up by a brown belt, and a pair of white shoes. He still had his hat with him, however.

They all brought guns, except for Amanda, who didn't feel comfortable with a gun, so she brought those staves that the White Queen gave her.

(Now, regarding the thing about a city with a casino being in the middle of a forbidden forest... Well, what would YOU prefer? A casino or China's stock market? (Look it up)

They had to go in pairs so it wouldn't be much obvious that they were all together in one group on a "quest to defeat the boss level of an MMORPG," as how Kristina would've said it (but didn't).

Carly-Dee had to go with Stephen, since Stephen didn't want to be with an annoying Cheshire Cat that would tell you to keep your back straight and to stop being a bad influence and such, and if either of them were to be with Amanda, they might lose sight of her often.

Carlo-Dum had to go with Kristina, since he was the only one who can control the Cat when she's drunk, and if either of them were to be with Amanda, they would lose her as well.

Athena went with Amanda since she was the only person who can keep an eye on Amanda without ever getting distracted oh-so-easily.

So they parted ways.

(By the way, the casino's clothing rules are like those in America. Sadly, I slightly forgot some details, so just research it.)

* * *

Sauntering towards the casino, an awkward topic started to rise between Kristina and Carlo-Dum

"My old friend once told me a terrifying experience of hers," Kristina shared. "She said that she was alone in her room when she smelled a flatus that didn't belong to her."

"Uh... What?"

While walking, they passed by an unconscious guy with a broom stuck up his butt.

The two remained silent, Kristina secretly taking a picture.

Entering, Kristina started playing strip poker and she won each time. (?)

* * *

"Hm. This slot machine sure is fun." Stephen smiled.

Carly-Dee continued eating her apple, keep silent so as not to disturb Stephen, especially since he'd kill her if she did.

"A-ano... Stephen?" she said sheepishly.

The Hatter looked back at her with a dark expression and poker face. "What."

"I-is it really OK for Stephen to put all that load in his hat?"

Stephen looked at his hat beside him, where there were many Wonderlens. He shrugged and pushed the button on the slot machine. He stared at the random shapes and numbers, hoping he'll get another trio.

And he did.

Three 7s.

He continued playing, and kept winning the game again and again.

Three strawberries.

Three dollar signs.

Three hearts.

Three hats.

Stephen knew well enough that the shapes update again and again, but what he didn't get was that he got a trio of hats seven times.

"Hmmmm..."

Carly-Dee started to play the slot machine as well, and there was a time where she got three pistols seven times. It perplexed her as well.

* * *

Athena gave a low chuckle. "Now, I somewhat understand why people go to casinos to gamble. It is quite enjoyable."

There was a teenage girl with poofy, green pigtails, red eyes, and red and black nails. She wore a dress with a yellow top and a frilly, pink skirt reaching up to her knees, a fishnet undershirt ('twas slightly showing), a belt with spikes, a fishnet glove on her left hand, a striped, black and red arm warmer on her right forearm, a striped, red and black sock on her right leg, a fishnet sock (dunno what ya call 'em) on her left leg, and she had a pair of red boots on. Her name, apparently, was Sakaki. She was the dealer.

Athena, to Sakaki's left, has the small blind, so posts a small blind of 5 Wonderlens.

A young man with dirty blond hair almost reaching his shoulders, and a pair of glasses sat to the left of Athena. He wore a dark blue coat, a long-sleeved, white, button-up shirt, a pair of blue pants, and pair of black shoes. His name, he had said, was Charlie. He has the big blind, so he posts a big blind of 7 Wonderlens.

The one who goes first, the young man with spiky blond hair-in fact, is hair seemed TOO spiky-to the right was named Guy. He wore a plain white t-shirt, a black jacket, a pair of black pants, and a pair of sneakers.

I shall now skip this part since, (a) it is hard to explain what happens when one plays poker, and (b) I shouldn't even be TALKING about casinos and gambling. I'm actually 13 years old, while writing this, so you MIGHT be of that age, too, so yeah. I should just shut up. (Don't ask how I gather a lot of information, I have my ways, and it's not Google.)

Athena shows her hand of Q 9 , so the best five-card hand she can make is 9 9 9 K Q , for three nines, with a king-queen kicker. Charlie shows his cards of K J , making his final hand K K 9 9 J for two pair, kings and nines, with a jack kicker. Athena wins the showdown and the 50 Wonderlen pot.

"I win again," Ahena declares, straightening her back.

The other three had sparkles in their eyes, out of admiration to Athena. "Julie is so awesome...," they murmur. (Remember how Athena will be going under the pseudonym Julie?)

* * *

"Wahahahahahaha~!" Kristina laughed, drinking some alcohol/sake straight from a bottle. "You guys'll end up naked before ya even end up winning! You'll have nothing to bet on now!"

It was only at the first game that Kristina lost (and she had bet her , but all throughout, she kept winning.

"What is your name again?" a young man with long, black hair tied in a pony tail asked. "Arrietty? Are you not under aged?"

"The only ages the Wonderland Casino doesn't allow are below 13," Carlo-Dum interjected. "And, well, we're already 13. So Arrietty and I are allowed. Plus, aren't you just 18? I mean, usually only 21-years and above are allowed in casinos"

"Ah... Good point." Black-Ponytail stared at Carlo-Dum. "You call yourself Shion, yes? Why aren't you playing with your friend?"

Carlo-Dum waved his hand dismissively, laughing nervously. "I-it's fine, it's fine."

"Oi, Black-Ponytail, I won again~" Kristina said, slightly drunk, but not that much that she would start singing 'Dora the Explorer'.

Black-Ponytail sighed. He removed his necktie and shoes. He clicked his tongue. 'Young Master wouldn't like this. I should be buying vegetables and meat for dinner, in fact.'

Kristina yawned. She began shuffling the cards using the "riffle shuffling" method. "I'm bored. Let's go, Shion. I saw someone selling cream cheese in the shape of triangles." The girl grinned at the thought of it and stood up and made a beeline for the hallway in the east wing.

Black-Ponytail got irritated by the girl named Arrietty that had some weird tail swishing around behind her. He finally left the casino to go to his Young Master. (?)

* * *

The younger girl with pink hair looked up at the older boy that had dirty blond hair.

"When do we make move out?"

The blonde have a low chuckle and looked at the pinkette. "Don't worry. There'll be a signal sooner or later."

They talked about other important matters, then went their separate ways.

* * *

**RoseLocket convinced me to make this one whole chapter, and the supposed second part will be chapter 11.**


	12. XI - Rivalries, Relatives, and Betrayal

**[[RennRaven wrote this]]**

* * *

**Finally back. FINALLY BACK! =DDD However, it's so hot here, unlike in America. |||OTL**

**Anyway, here's Chapter 11, people who aren't there. **

**Warning: Language, Violence (kind of) **

**Dedication: RoseLocket, since RoseLocket requested that I add Grell Sutcliff to the story .**

**Disclaimer: Oz Vessalius and Gilbert Nightray belong to Jun Mochizuki. Sebastian Michaelis and Grell Sutcliff belong to Yana Toboso, and Konata Izumi belongs to whoever she belongs to (I FORGOT LOL).**

* * *

The younger girl looked up at the older boy.

"When do we make our move?"

The young man have a low chuckle. "Don't worry. There'll be a signal sooner or later."

They went their separate ways.

* * *

Ever since Kristina started to feel extremely lazy to gamble, Carlo-Dum dragged her around the casino, looking at random shit (the casino was connected to a mall that surrounded it, the casino taking up the center and main entrance of the mall.

The Cheshire Cat was being submissive, her tail drooping down on the floor, her dragging it while she followed the Tweedle-Dum twin.

Carlo-Dum stole a few glances at Kristina, wondering why she looked so down in the dumps.

"Ne, Kristina... Are you OK?"

The cat girl looked at him with an annoyed look. "Don't fuck with me, I'm fine. Just a little lightheaded because of the alcohol. 'Twas strong, but quite appetizing."

Carlo-Dum sighed. If she knew she would get lot headed eventually, why'd she drink two and a half bottles of sake, anyway? Was it 'cause of her semi-simple mindedness?

Walking past a store with little figurines of chibi what's-its, Kristina went in the store without Carlo-Dum's consent.

A few minutes pass and when the boy twin looked back at his friend, she was no where there.

He began running back to where he last saw her, and found her staring right at a poster that Carlo-Dum felt uncomfortable to look at.

For your safety, and because Carlo-Dum's going to kill me if I tell (*looks wearily behind me, where Carlo-Dum is glaring at me and holding a gun*), I won't tell you what was on that poster. It wasn't entirely inappropriate, he just felt extremely awkward.

"Please don't tell me you want that."

"I want it."

"Kristina, we're here to look for suspicious people, not buy posters of... _THAT._"

Kristina started to fantasize everything. "But it's so beautiful...~"

The boy sighed.

* * *

Amanda stared at Athena as she calmly gambled with no regrets whatsoever.

"Julie, are you sure that you should continue with that?" the human asked. "You could end up broke, yanno?"

Athena smiled at her reassuringly. "It's fine. I won't get broke, I am sure of it."

Amanda kept silent.

The black-haired seaweed-headed young man beside Athena scowled. "Fuck. I think I will, and I still have to buy cookies for Oz," he muttered.

"Why have I heard that name before?" a girl with long blue hair reaching her ankles said.

Athena breathed out a sigh of satisfaction. "I win."

"_Again!?_" the other three cry out in unison

* * *

Stephen pushed the button once more, and he seriously couldn't get tired of playing that slot machine.

(Hey, yanno, my family, 4 other relatives, and I were in a hotel, and the casino filled with slot machines was in the wide open, so when we walked by it to get to the elevators, I was kind of able to notice how they're used...or actually I just analyzed how it would've been used.)

In the higher screen that counted his Wonderlens, it stated that he already had 668,947 W-lens. He was on a roll, and very satisfied, albeit awkward.

There was a feminine-ish man with extremely sharp canines and spiky, long, red hair near him. He seemed homosexual, as well, seeing that he was swooning over a black haired man with notable red eyes beside him.

"Carly-Dee, can you see that?" he whispered to the girl twin beside him, who was also playing the slots.

"Carly-Dee can see it, but it is not troubling me."

Stephen looked back at the red-haired man and saw that the red-head was glaring at yet another gay guy who was licking his lips while looking at the black-haired guy.

His eyes widened once he saw that the red-head chopped off the gay guy's head using a chainsaw.

'_He is interesting..._,' Stephen thought.

And it followed suit with the red-head beheading everyone that attempted to eye rape the black-haired man who tried his best to ignore the red homosexual that now seemed extremely awesome to Stephen seeing how nonchalantly violent and gory he was.

The young boy pushed up his glasses and poked the black-haired man on the arm. "Excuse me, but do you know who that guy is?"

"I do not have any idea who he is, and I do not care about it him at all," Black-Hair said. (Oh, by the way, in chapter 10, he was named Black-Ponytail...).

"Then, why is he stabbing everyone who...?"

"I do not know him." Black-Hair stood up and left the casino without another word.

"Sebas-chan, _wait~!_" the red-head exclaimed, running after the black-haired man, who was named Sebastian.

Sebastian ran away. "Shut up, Grell! Young Master is looking for me!"

* * *

"Kr-Arrietty, no."

"But Shion~!"

"Dude, don't you get the _least bit_ creeped out about that poster?"

"No. It's wonderful. Plus, I have 200,000 W-lens, it's fine."

"When did you get that much W-lens?"

"Ever since I won strip poker for 20 rounds? C'mon, _please?_"

"No. Plus, it's a good thing your money is with me, or you would've bought that / ages / ago."

Kristina groaned. "Why'd I give you the money in the first place?"

"You were too lazy to hold them..."

"PLEAS-!"

"**_NO!_**"

"Hey," the cashier said. "Are ya gonna buy dem poster or not? I ain't got no time, yanno?"

Kristina took the poster, took out some money, and paid for it.

"When did you...?"

"I took it from you from the last minute." She held it in front of her, rolled up, and it lit up then slowly disappeared. "There. Now I won't have trouble carrying this, since I transported it to Milady's place."

The boy sighed and began dragging her everywhere again, making sure to avoid shops with figurines and indecent posters.

* * *

'__, any trouble?_' the blond telepathically said to his pink-haired friend.

'_I have encountered two bastards who couldn't decide what to buy. You?_' the pink-haired teen responded.

'_Nothing, just some indecent comment from a male who simply doesn't appreciate my shuffling._'

The pinkette laughed.

* * *

Kristina started to gamble again, and the dealer in front of she and Carlo-Dum seemed oddly familiar to her. She just can't put her finger on it.

The cat girl leaned to Carlo-Dum and whispered, "Do you know that dealer?"

The boy twin shook his head.

Kristina sighed and concentrated on the game, when suddenly, the lights went out.

Ear-splitting screams and loud crashes echoed throughout the room.

When the lights flickered back on, there were little crystal boxes everywhere that contained little people-the ones who were once gambling but then shrunk and placed in the boxes through magic.

Only some Wonderlanders were placed in mini crystalline boxes, while the rest were panicking and running about, most escaping to the mall, where no one noticed what just happened.

What was worse was that Carlo-Dum was gone, and the oh-so-familiar dealer had a twisted grin plastered on his face.

"Long time no see," the blond said, his grin widening, "_Kristina_."

* * *

Carlo-Dum struggled against the firm grip of the pink-haired girl that grabbed a hold of him while the lights were out. "Hey! Let go off me!"

The pinkette let go and Carlo-Dum fell over. Twisting his body to face the girl, he suddenly felt that he had some connection with her.

"Hello, long lost brother," the girl said, staring at him with a blank expression that looked like she was about to kill him with no hesitation whatsoever since she didn't seem capable of emotions (in Carlo-Dum's opinion).

"'_Brother_'?" the boy twin wondered.

The teen nodded. "You are Carlo, yes? And our father died because of Wilfre, and an explosion happened that our mother died, as well. But what you didn't know was that before she died, she gave birth to me, without the both of you knowing. That was also the day when you traveled through time, no? Well, I took after our mother, having pink hair. That is why I seem familiar, right?"

Carlo-Dum just stared at the girl, studying her carefully, as he listened to her (semi-) politely. He / did / look like his mother, in a way. He gritted his teeth, remembering how bloody his mother looked when he and Carly-Dee saw her.

He shook the memory off of him.

"And what gave you the right to show up, huh?"

The pinkette chuckled. "Is it bad to take hold of you twins, big brother?" She opened a closet and his twin sister came tumbling out, yelping.

"Carly-Dee doesn't believe you! Carly-Dee doesn't care whether you are my little sister or not, Viasna shouldn't blow up their own mother by going back in time! Viasna is not worthy of being my sister!"

The boy twin's eyes widened. "She was the one...? The one who...?"

Carly-Dee looked at her win and nodded.

'"_Viasna_",' Carlo-Dum thought. '_That means spring. And it's also the name of our mom..._'

But hearing what his twin sister had said, he gritted his teeth and took out a pistol from inside his jacket. Carlo-Dum pointed it at Viasna.

"Who the freaking hell would kill their own mother?" he growled. "Whoever that fucktard would be will never be worthy of being our sister."

Carlo-Dum shot Viasna, but the girl made a sword appear out of no where that blocked the silver bullet.

Viasna's sword had a verdant, sterling blade, an oak green hilt with an enormous, crimson rose encircling it.

The boy gave the deadliest and most threatening death glare he ever made to Viasna, who thought that was the scariest one she ever seen, second to Wilfre's own glare.

"Tell me," her older brother said, "will you see stars when I bury you in the ground?"

* * *

"Long time no see," the blond said, his grin widening, "_Kristina_."

Kristina's eyes widened. "J-Jake...?"

The blond snickered. "Precisely, dear cousin of mine. Except I don't call myself Jake anymore. I go under the pseudonym '_Veror_', meaning summer. I am a member of the '_4 Seasons'_, who also include my friend, Viasna, and Winters and Autumn, whom you've already met. Such children, they are, getting defeated easily, ne?"

So that was why he seemed so familiar. Cousins... They were cousins. But strangers all the same.

Kristina was deeply annoyed. He looked like her cousin, alright, but their attitudes were completely contrasting. The Jake she knew was extremely innocent-not wanting to even touch a dirty magazine, or even look at it; not having any bad or indecent word in his mind; never looking down upon anyone.

'**_This_**_ Jake is such a bitch_,' Kristina thought.

"What the fuck made _you_ show up, virgin?" Kristina spat back.

Veror chuckled. "Such a dirty little mouth, eh, Little Cat? If I recall, you never even _knew_ what 'fuck' meant, when we were younger."

"That's the past, now's the present. Even though I see you know, I can foresee that you don't have a future, you being near me." Kristina now had the same twisted grin that Veror had.

"Oh, so you are a Seer now, huh."

"I don't need the opinion of the likes of you!"

Kristina brought out her 5 playing cards that she used while playing poker. She fanned them out and threw them at her used-to-be cousin, just like throwing darts on a target.

The cards sliced the air silently and pinned Veror's clothes to the wall behind him, trapping him there like a spider's meal.

Veror gave a smug smile when Kristina brought out a gun and pointed it at his head and asked him if he had any last words. He nodded.

"_Revet_.*"

Slowly, Veror's body gave an illusion of it being torn to pieces, him disappearing into thin air.

Kristina gritted her teeth, but looking at her from afar, she looked like she was having a great time, still having that grin plastered on her face. She shot the the light above her in anger.

* * *

"Ca-Legretta?" Stephen called out. "Legretta, ya there?"

Ever since the lights went out, Carly-Dee disappeared and Stephen began panicking-not because Carly was gone, but because he'd have to face Athena's nagging after.

He kept his money hidden in a pocket that he made in his hat, and started to look around.

There were crystal boxes scattered on the floor that contained mini Wonderlanders. Stephen tried his best not to step on them.

He spotted a familiar face and groaned.

'_It was Dylandre.'_

The said boy looked towards Stephen's way and smirked. "Hey there, Hatter!"

"Hello, Dylandre," Stephen said through gritted teeth. "What the fuck are _you_ doing here?"

Dylan chuckled and ruffled the smaller boy's hair. "Keep the harsh language down, Hatter."

Stephen glared at the (annoyingly) taller young man. "Does my extreme hatred for you _amuse_ you?"

Pain surged into Stephen's wrists and ankles. He looked down and saw that his wrists and ankles were tied by ice ropes.

"Maybe it does," Dylan smirked. He knocked the Hatter unconscious.

The last thing Stephen saw was another person that had a similar face to Kristina's appearing out of no where.

* * *

"Tell me," Carlo-Dum said, "will you see stars when I bury you in the ground?"

In one swift move, he shot Viasna in the arm, kicked her in the stomach, and pushed her in the closet.

"Carly-Dee. Go!" the boy instructed.

"But-"

"_GO_, Dammit!"

His twin was shocked. It was the first time Carlo-Dum ever raised his voice like that. He must've been really concerned.

Carly-Dee ran off, but at the doorway, she stopped for a second to look at her brother, who had the most serious look in his face that she had ever seen him do.

Viasna slowly got up and threw a pristine sword at her older brother. "One-on-one, sword battle: commencing now."

Carlo-Dum grabbed the sword swiftly and began swinging it expertly at his younger sister, getting annoyed every second.

"I have found my match. This is a worthy opponent."

"You slightly remind me of Winters. Irascible: easily provoked to anger."

Carlo-Dum ignored Viasna's remarks and just focused on hitting his younger sister.

Their swords collided and began a battle of whose sword will be thrown away.

Eventually, Carlo-Dum was cornered. He looked to the wall, and an idea clicked into his mind.

He walked up the wall and hopped down unto the ground and cornered Viasna in just one swift move.

The young girl glared at his older brother then head-butted him in the stomach. It was a good enough distraction for her to run up the stairs at the side of the room.

Carlo-Dum growled and chased after her.

* * *

_thunk!_

Kristina looked towards the direction of the noise after her silent and semi-composed tantrum (one consisting of shooting two lights, kicking tons of chairs, all with a slightly grinning poker face).

The Cheshire Cat was shocked to see Stephen clutching his hat and hanging unconscious on Dylan Crystalia's shoulder.

And standing beside Dylan was Veror.

Kristina disappeared into thin air, leaving a trace of purple flames instead of purple smoke. She reappeared behind Veror and punched him at the back of his head.

Veror tumbled forwards, clutching his head in pain.

Dylan looked behind him and Kristina saw a hint of panic in his eyes before he smirked and disappeared into cold air and went away.

'_Once Stephen wakes up, he'll do anything and everything to kill that guy for doing that to him_,' Kristina thought, '_so I don't have to worry about that homme fatale_-'

"Aaaaacckk!"

The girl looked down to see Veror, with his hand extended, making his magic suffocate her by wrapping around a paper-like object engulfed in flames around her.

Kristina grinned. "Paper magic combined with the family's fire magic?"

Veror glared at his cousin. "My paper magic doesn't easily get burned. Don't you dare insult me."

"Ah, well, it looks like your "oh-so-fucking-amazing paper magic" is turning to ash already," Kristina mocked. "_Veror_."

Veror gritted his teeth in annoyance.

* * *

"You mother fucking bitch get me the fuck off your shitty shoulder you perverted masochist!" Stephen cursed. (In fact, too much)

"Awake already, Hatter?" Dylan smirked, setting him down.

Stephen placed his hat on his head. "Why the hell did you knock me unconscious, anyway?"

"Because I work for Wilfre, Hatter."

* * *

Wilfre continued to torture Lysia, enjoying her cries of pain.

"Sadist," Lysia coughed out.

Wilfre kneed her in the stomach and Lysia spat out blood.

The young man did all these things with an emotionless face.

"If I recall, the Queen of Hearts said that you had sadness all the time."

"That's because I don't want to kill anyone anymore. That doesn't mean I don't stop torturing people for fun. Especially vulnerable little rabbits like you."

While they continued giving each other mean remarks, Lysia was secretly using the clock hand in her pocket watch to cut the rope tied around her.

Now she only needed to get rid of her Magic-Resistant handcuffs.

* * *

**A/N: I'm enjoying this part of the story. *grin***

**WORD BANK TIME:**

**Revet = "torn" in Danish**

**Viasna = "spring" in Belarusian**

**Veror = "summer" in Albanian**


	13. XII - Illusions, Telepathy, and Captures

**[[RoseLocket wrote this]]**

* * *

"Athena!" Amanda cried. "There are tiny people in those boxes."

"Yes, Alice," Athena replied. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"PUT ME DOWN LITTLE GIRL!" the Wonderlander inside the box Amanda had picked up yelled. "AND HELP ME OUTTA HERE!"

"Wow," Amanda said. "So...small."

"Alice, please put that down. We have to look for the others." Athena looked around and cursed under her breath. "Why did we have to separate in the first place...? And why did all this trouble begin anyway? I was having a lot of fun taking money from other people..."

"Uh, Athena?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have any idea where the others are? Maybe talk to them telepathically like what you did in the White Queen's castle?"

"Oh. Yes, yes, I'll try that." Athena stared off into distance and tried to concentrate. She attempted to reach the one nearest to where they were.

"Carly-Dee!"

"Athena?!"

"Where are you?"

"Carly-Dee is looking for others. She hears small explosions in the distance."

"Alice and I are in the casino. Do you know where you are?"

"Carly-Dee is going into the doors. Ah!"

"Oh, Carly!" Amanda greeted when the Tweedle came running up to them, shotgun in hand.

"What happened?!" Carly-Dee asked. "Everyone is in crystal boxes!"

"Some sort of magic," Athena said. "I'll contact the others."

* * *

Carlo-Dum kept dodging Viasna's sword attacks when he suddenly heard a voice in his head. It was low and a little annoying at first, but it grew louder until he recognized Athena's voice.

"Not now, Athena," he grunted as he quickly jumped away when Viasna sliced the air in front of him.

_"Carlo-Dum, tell us where you are."_

"I said not now!" Carlo could see Viasna looking confused that he appeared to be talking to himself, so he took the opportunity to lunge at her and slash her across the chest.

Carlo-Dum stopped when he realized what he'd just done. Numerous thoughts ran through his mind. _What if he killed her?_ He was driven by rage a while ago upon hearing that she'd killed her mom, but he didn't mean to go this far...

_"Carlo-Dum, we need to come find you."_

Everything went in slow motion as blood spurted out from Viasna's wound. She staggered backwards, and time slowed as she lost her footing and fell into the lake below. But not before giving her long-lost brother a big grin.

_"Carlo-Dum? Carlo?"_

Carlo-Dum dropped his sword. As if scared at what he was going to see, he hesitantly stepped towards the edge of the rooftop. He expected to see his sister—who was so much of a bitch to him in their reunion—floating on the water as the liquid went red with her blood.

But he didn't see her. The lake was clear and undisturbed. He didn't even hear the splash.

_"Carlo?"_

"I'll come meet you instead," Carlo-Dum said in a shaky voice. "W-where are you?"

_"We're at the casino."_ A pause came, then Athena said, _"Carlo-Dum, were you fighting?"_

"It's not important!" Carlo-Dum said a little too quickly. "I'm going down to meet you."

Athena took a while before saying, _"Alright."_

* * *

"Shouldn't we go to where Carly-Dee heard those miniature explosions?" Carly-Dee asked.

"Once Carlo-Dum reaches us," Athena replied. "I'll try to contact both Kristina and Stephen at once."

Kristina picked up earlier before Stephen did.

_"Kristina! Where are you?"_

"Wait. Athena?!"

_"Yes, this is Athena. Where are you?"_

"This is definitely NOT the best time to try and strike up a telepathic conversation with me."

_"I suspect you're in some sort of commotion right now. Where are you?"_

"I don't need you to know my location! I'm kind of busy here!"

"What the hell's going on?!" Stephen butted in.

_"Stephen, where are you?!"_ Athena called out.

"Uh, by the—"

The sudden sound of an explosion somewhere caught all three off guard. Athena felt her connection to Kristina snap, and Stephen's was going awry.

"Stephen," Athena said out loud, for fear of losing her concentration if she just kept mentally yelling at him. "I can't communicate with you if you're mind's clouded over. What happened and where are you?"

Hatter tried to answer, but his reply sounded like static.

"Stephen?"

The connection cut off.

"Dammit!" Athena cried, stomping her foot.

"What happened?" Amanda inquired.

"This casino's pretty big," Athena said. "There are two sides, and you can enter each side through an average-sized open doorway. I've been going into the minds of others occasionally to check on them while I was taking money—I-I mean gambling. I discovered Stephen's addiction for the slot machines, which is on the other side of the casino, so we'll go there. Unfortunately that doorway has been blocked by wreckage from which I have no clear idea came from—tables and chairs, basically, so we'll have to take the long way."

"Can't the wreckage just be moved?" Carly-Dee asked.

"Go try," Amanda suggested.

"She's gonna fail," Athena sighed as Carly went over to check. "Why are we wasting our time like this... Carly-Dee come back here."

"What?"

"We don't have time to spare."

"But Carly-Dee hasn't even tried."

"Come back here or I'll shoot you with your own gun."

"Um...s-surely Athena wouldn't do that, right?"

"Tweedledee..."

"A-alright, if Athena says so..."

* * *

"You'd have to forgive Veror, Mister Hatter," Dylan said with a smirk. "He's not very gentlemanly when it comes to giving ladies the proper hospitality."

Stephen checked Kristina for any serious wounds. Bruise on the head, a lot of them covering her arms. He checked her pulse and was glad to see she was still alive.

He heard someone chuckle. "So, you're the Hatter, after all?" the one called Veror said. "I imagined you to be...well, madder."

Stephen unsteadily stood up and glanced at the two blondes. He wasn't sure if he would be able to defeat both of them. He was never that strong.

"Why were you fighting Kristina?" he asked.

"Family business."

"You two are RELATED?"

"Cousins, I suppose," Veror said with a shrug. Then he outstretched his palm towards him. "Varrvel."

Neither Stephen nor Dylan could see what the hell Veror was trying to do to Stephen. Veror became frustrated when his spell didn't work and repeated the word, but nothing happened.

"Awkward," Dylan lowly chuckled.

Veror threw him a nasty look, but out of the blue he was sent flying through the air. A split second later his back impacted with the wall rather violently, a crack spreading out from behind him. He got up, clutching his side while glaring.

"I thought you were almost human-like, Hatter," Dylan said, muffling his laughter.

"How dare you..."

A knife almost hit Dylan square in the face had he not ducked.

"Why does everyone always look down on me?" Stephen muttered. "I mean, I don't go away from the tea party a lot because I don't like people but still..."

"I don't care about miserable introvert excuses and whatnot," Veror grunted. "I don't suppose I should waste my time with you."

Stephen scowled. "Whatever."

Veror gave him one last glare before doing that 'revet' spell again, but not before he thought he saw the room going red and a giant Hannya mask.

"Your turn, Crystalia."

"Now I thought Veror would be the one to get most of the punishment..." Dylan said a little anxiously.

"I'm pretty sure Kristina would love to kick his ass herself later," Stephen said. "But as for you..."

Dylan dodged another knife. "Alright then, if you really want to get that serious, then I'll play fair." From thin air appeared two dagger-like spikes in Dylan's hands. "It's all reflexes now, isn't it?"

He expected the battle to immediately begin after that, but then Stephen picked up Kristina by the ankle and stuffed her under a table. However he didn't even get to straighten up fully when Kristina began to wake up.

"Uh...wha...ow..."

_Well shit_, Stephen thought as he reached under the table.

Dylan watched very interestedly until Stephen stood up and dusted off his shirt. "What was that about, hm? Hatter?" he asked, smirking.

He was about to make another remark when his back ended up violently crashing against the wall much in the same way as what happened to Veror.

Dylan immediately got back on his feet and threw his ice spike where he knew Stephen was. Hatter grunted before disappearing.

The room turned completely black after that, and Dylan couldn't make sense out of what was happening. Must've been one of the Hatter's illusion tricks.

_Well, how the hell am I supposed to fight now?_ he thought. "You aren't playing fair, Hatter," he said out loud.

"Eh?" a girl said.

An entirely different environment then appeared in front of him. He was in a room with large windows and paintings hung on the walls. There were a lot of empty seats around him. In front of him was an easel with the picture of a girl on it.

Beside him on a stool sat the same girl from the picture. She had dark violet hair in a bob cut and soft orange-colored eyes. She had a golden tattoo on her face that resembled fire. She was clad in a blue old-fashioned student's uniform.

Dylan's eyes widened. "Olivia?"

The girl tilted her head to the side. "Yeah, Dyl?"

"What are you...?" He wanted to ask her why she was here. They weren't supposed to meet again since that incident a long time ago. At least, he didn't want to.

"I was telling you about how nicely you've done the picture, Dyl," Olivia said with a smile, gesturing to the easel. "It looks so realistic. I don't get why your mom objects."

Dylan tried to reply, but he couldn't.

"Oh well." Olivia stood up and brushed the front of her skirt. "I forgot something in the classroom. I'll go get it."

Now Dylan could feel a sense of déjà vu. He knew what was going to happen, and he didn't want Olivia to leave. If she were here with him, he could at least not feel as alone as he did before. "Wait—!"

"I'll be back soon, Dyl," Olivia said, waving a hand as she headed for the exit. "There's nothing to worry about." Then she was gone.

Dylan stared at the door for ten long seconds before he turned to the easel. It was a rough sketch, but it looked quite well-drawn. If only he'd had time to turn it into a real masterpiece—

"Hey, Crystalia!"

He cringed when the door flew open and in stepped three boys. All of them were a year ahead of him, and they looked angry.

"Maybe you'd like to explain this to us!" The leader of the three—a boy with green streaks on his white hair, named Jarrod—exclaimed. He took a garbage bag from behind him and flipped it upside down. Three objects fell from the bag. Lunch containers covered in unbreakable ice—the kind that couldn't melt; the kind that Dylan could make.

Dylan remembered how snappily he'd replied when this happened before, how he'd provoked these three so harshly. He didn't want such an incident to repeat, so he quickly stood up from the stool, put his hands up and said in a trembling voice that he hated: "Okay, okay. I'm sorry! I'll give you all of my pocket money for this school year, I'll get you your lunches, and—"

"Cut the crap, Crystalia," the second boy said, rolling his eyes. His name was Gara, and he was rumored to be a descendant of the Jabberwock. Hence his sharp teeth and body markings. "Stop trying to bargain with us."

"But that does sound like a fine idea," the third boy said. He had a Mohawk-like hairstyle and his skin was light blue. His name was Cleave. "The pocket money part. Not for the lunches—the food here's gross."

"Whatever!" Jarrod shook his head. He pointed at Dylan. "I know what you did was revenge for earlier this morning. That time was for fun, but now, you deserve it!"

The three started advancing towards him, so Dylan, running out of options, extended his palm towards them and attempted to freeze them on their steps.

However, Jarrod quickly swiped his arm in front of him, and the ice coming towards them broke into the tiniest smithereens. "That's useless," he spat. "You know how I can easily nullify magic."

Dylan kept backing up while almost stumbling over the chairs and tables in the way. He saw Jarrod rip off the sketch he drew, push the easel down, then continue his way towards him, crumbling the paper up in his hands.

Soon Dylan couldn't go anywhere else. He was cornered up to the wall, the three approaching. He gulped. He craned his neck to the doorway to see if Olivia would miraculously come and save him. All the hair on his face was making it a little difficult to see, but he saw it.

Olivia stood there, looking at the scene in shock. Dylan tried to call for her, but it only came out as a strangled yelp.

Jarrod grabbed a whole bunch of his hair and roughly threw his head against the wall. Dylan grunted, and tried to resist crying.

"You little shit," Jarrod snarled.

Dylan sank to the floor. He attempted to see through between the boys who were surrounding him, but wished that he didn't.

Olivia had turned and fled.

* * *

"It was Stephen's fault anyway," Carly-Dee told him as they walked off to the house they rented. "That is why Stephen will have to be the one responsible for carrying Dylan."

"Hey! I was the one stabbed in the shoulder, while Tweedle-Dum over there emerges from battle uninjured!" Stephen gestured to Dylan, who had a sleeping Kristina in cat form curled up in his arms while he walked with a spaced-off gaze.

"It was hardly battle you did," Athena told him. "You cheated."

"So?"

"And you allowed Veror to kidnap Amanda."

"He was—wait, how'd you know who Veror is?"

"I was reading Kristina's mind while she was fighting him."

They continued to walk for a few seconds before Athena said, "I never asked you about how Kristina went unconscious."

"That blonde dude knocked her out," Stephen replied. "What's up with the two of them, anyway? They're cousins, yeah, but..."

"All Kristina's thinking of right now is how much she really needs some rest, so I can't identify."

"Carlo-Dum, what happened to Viasna?" Carly-Dee asked.

Carlo-Dum didn't reply.

"Carlo?"

"'She disappeared without a trace, probably injured,'" Athena quoted.

"Athena," Carlo-Dum said.

"Yes?"

"I'd like it if you allowed my mind some privacy, even for a little bit."

"I'm sorry, but surely we needed to know what happened to the two who instigated the panic in the casino a while ago."

Carlo-Dum only sighed.

* * *

"Not again."

"Why? Aren't you satisfied that we've brought you the human?"

"Of course I am. But surely her stubborn friends are going to track her down one way or another. You had the chance to kill the Cheshire Cat and the Hatter. What. Happened?"

"It was either that or the human escapes."

"You knocked the Cat down. Shouldn't you and Dylan be able to take on the Hatter easily?"

"He has illusions magic. Dylan was affected."

"Because you left him alone. Besides, if you've managed to trick the human and her remaining friends into thinking we had them when they were actually dead, we'll be able to blackmail." Sigh. "Whatever. Where's the human?"

"Right here."

"Put her in one of those cages. It should be easier to extract the driplings that way."

"Yes."

"Where's Viasna?"

"She's recovering from the wound she received from Tweedle-Dum."

"Is she that weak?"

"The process is quick. It's almost done."

Tch. "Just hurry up and put her in the damned cage."

"Yes, Master."

Wilfre turned to Lysia and scowled. "We're going to meet your friend soon. Aren't you excited?"

Lysia didn't reply.

When Wilfre knelt down and examined her closer, he realized she was sleeping.

"You're not supposed to just sleep on me like that, you damn rabbit," Wilfre muttered.

* * *

Once everyone was done changing out of their outfits, they attempted all methods to find Amanda. Apparently another sort of magic was used so that even Athena couldn't track her down, unlike the first time. It was the same aura that blocked her from trying to see where Lysia was. She must have been brought close to where Wilfre's own secret place was.

"I'm tired," Athena muttered.

"Already?" Carly-Dee said, looking out the window. It was already dusk.

"This is really tiring," Athena said. "None of my magic skills can locate Alice. I need some rest."

"How long?"

"Approximately ten hours. Bye."

She shakily stood up, rubbed her eyes then shambled towards her room like a zombie. When her door closed, everyone could hear Athena immediately fall to the ground and doze off.

The group sat around the table just staring at the smooth wooden surface, not saying a word. That is until someone's stomach growled.

"That's what you get for not eating lunch a while ago," Stephen murmured.

"ARRGGHH! SHUT UP!" Kristina yelled. "Besides, I had sake a while ago...!"

"That's not something that could pass." Stephen shrugged. "Well, we'd better get dinner soon. What do you guys want?"

"Um...maybe whatever's roasted outside in the nearest store?" Carly-Dee suggested.

"You fine with that, Tweedle-Dum?"

Carlo was glaring at the table, as if it had done something horrible to him. He was scowling.

"...Guess Carlo-Dum is?" Carly-Dee said, shrugging as she looked at her brother in confusion.

"Oooo-kay...how about you, Cat?" Stephen asked.

"Anything's fine," she grumbled, burying her head in her arms. '_Although I hate meat._'

Stephen and Carly-Dee looked from Carlo-Dum to Kristina a few times before Stephen got up and picked up his coat, which was draped over a chair. He put it on, and with a half-hearted wave he left the house.

Carly-Dee's stomach grumbled, and she slumped. "Carly-Dee's hungry..." she groaned.

"Me too," a voice from the doorway said. The Tweedle turned her head to the direction of the voice and saw Dylan, sitting down by Athena's bedroom door with an exhausted look on his face.

Kristina's head snapped up, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'd love to give the Hatter a good slap upside the head for the unfair illusions he gave me, but seems like he's not here," Dylan shrugged. "And leaving me on the floor as you tried pinpointing the human's location was really unkind of you to do."

"If Dylan wants to be alive, he will cooperate with us," Carly-Dee said.

"I'm dead beat, man. We'll wait till after I get my dinner, then we can decide."

"That's when you'll get your strength back," Kristina pointed out. "And how are you so sure we're allowing you to have dinner?"

"If you want me to work with you even temporarily, then you will." Dylan allowed a smug smirk, but he still had shadows under his eyes.

Kristina hissed at him.

Suddenly the door burst open. A bunch of people in blue uniforms entered, followed by a particular man with a darker blue uniform and a girl with long orange hair floating about like it had a mind of its own. She didn't look any older than fourteen. In her hands she held one of the crystal boxes from the casino with a sleeping person inside it.

"You say these people are responsible?" the man in the dark blue uniform said, gesturing to the shocked Wonderlanders.

The girl frowned at them. "That cat girl. I saw her fighting with someone at the casino, but I'm not sure if they're the ones who started the event." She went over to Kristina and thrust the crystal box towards her. "My brother is trapped here. Help him," she said sternly.

"How am I supposed to know how to?" Kristina snapped back, surprisingly grouchy.

"Kristina," Carly-Dee said, nudging her arm.

"Earlier this day, chaos ensued in a casino some blocks away," the man said. "You three were all present in the scene, says this young witness. One of you even engaged in a brief battle with someone else. We will have to take you in for questioning."

"How do they know?" Carly-Dee whispered to Kristina.

"I am able to see through one's disguise," the girl with orange hair said. Her golden eyes glinted as she narrowed them. "And I know you are somehow involved, _Macka_."

* * *

"The meat took a long time to cook, sorry," Stephen said as he kicked the door open. He expected a response, but when he looked around, no one was there. "Uh...what?"

Dylan's head emerged from behind the couch, and he grinned. "Great! I'm dying!"

"Where..." The bag holding the meat fell to the ground. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"Hatter, you dropped the food."

"_WHERE THE HELL IS EVERYONE?!_" Stephen shrieked.

"Chill, chill, bro." Dylan held up his hands as he stood up. "They got taken away by the dudes in blue. Is all."

"'IS ALL'? DUDES IN BLUE?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" Stephen began stomping around and slamming through the doors to see in the rooms.

"You're gonna wake up Athena if you keep yelling and slamming the doors like that," Dylan muttered.

Stephen stopped. "Wait...she's here?"

"Yeah, I had to move her to the cellar so the blue guys wouldn't get her..."

Stephen raced towards the cellar, Dylan taking the meat and then following behind while chewing on it. They went down to where Athena was and discovered her just lying on a severely rusted bed, sleeping away. Stephen tried to wake her up, but couldn't. He even kicked the bed.

"She's not gonna wake up until ten hours have passed," Dylan said, savoring the delicious meat.

"Why were the others taken away by those...dudes in blue?" Stephen glared at Dylan. "And WHY did you not stop them?!"

"It would be futile of me to do so. I was weak of power then, and I don't think I can just go and say that I was the one who put the dame's brother in a crystal box."

"It was because of your cowardice..." Stephen clenched his fists "...that they were taken."

"Look, maybe it will be good for them. I heard the dame address the Cheshire Cat with another name, so perhaps more interesting things will happen."

"What dame?"

"The dame who could see no lies. The one who told the dudes in blue that we were in the casino at the time of the chaos. So they were taken in for questioning."

"Questioning?" Stephen frowned. "The dudes in blue...are they a police of some sort?"

"I guess so."

Stephen scratched his head, his frown deepening to a scowl as he looked elsewhere in thought. "If only Athena were awake..." he muttered. He started wringing Athena's throat. "Why are you not awake?!"

"The Caterpillar needs some sleep too," Dylan said. "Supposedly she can only sleep every half a century since she rarely gets herself so involved with other Wonderlanders' businesses..."

Hatter released Athena and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going, Hatter?"

"I'm going to try to look for a way to get them back from those blue guys," Stephen replied. "You're staying here."

"Oh, so now you're trusting me?"

Stephen stopped in the cellar doorway. He turned his head back and gave Dylan his best (BEST) smile. "I know you don't want a repeat of earlier, Crystalia," he said as cheerfully as he could before he walked out.

There was a tall pine tree just near the house. Stephen exited the building and went over to it. He kicked it, resulting in a golden pine needle falling on his head.

A girl materialized on one of the tree's branches, looking down at Stephen, irritated. "_What?!"_

"Look, Rian, I need your help, and if you don't want to help me I'm gonna chainsaw this tree down."

"That's such a cheap threat already. You know how many times you used that on me?"

"Whatever."

* * *

"Seems like both of the Tweedles and the Cheshire Cat have been taken under Caerulus's control," Veror muttered, lighting his cigar.

"What's Caerulus?" Amanda asked. She was sitting inside a large bubble-like object that floated two feet off the ground. The only thing it had resembling a cage (which was what Veror called it) was that she couldn't easily escape from it.

"Caerulus is the organization that monitors the city where the casino was. They do their job from within the shadows and are not very commonly seen by citizens." Veror blew smoke out of his mouth. Amanda looked at the smoke and saw images of Wonderlanders in blue hooded uniforms. "The one who facilitates the organization is someone called Levis, but nobody really knows who he's like because he lives on one of Wonderland's moons and is said to communicate with them by moonlight. His second-in-command, Glark, mostly takes his place as leader when going out."

"Why'd they get Kristina and the others? What about Athena and Stephen?"

"I don't know about those two. As I said, Caerulus is like the police. What happened in the casino has obviously caught their attention."

"It was your fault, anyway."

Veror frowned, seeming to be lost in reverie. "I only..."

* * *

"Viasna, have you finally awakened?"

Viasna lightly touched the vines substituting as bandages for her wound and telepathically replied, "Yes, Master."

"Why did it take such a long time for you to recover?"

"It was a deep wound, Master, and I lost a lot of blood—"

"Nevermind. Veror told me that Caerulus has captured the Tweedles and the Cat. I want you to retrieve them."

Viasna frowned. "The Caerulus headquarters will be difficult to infiltrate. Besides, the surrounding greenery is quite...rebellious to my power." And I'm still healing, she mentally added.

"Are you objecting?"

"No, Master."

"Then get a move on. The cage is slow in extracting the driplings from the human, but Veror is watching over her. Hurry up."

"Would you like them alive or dead, Master?"

"What do you think?"

Viasna sighed. "Very well, Master."


	14. Writer's Block-ed Author's Note

Oha, people-who-don't-exist.

Click the goddamn external link to the right if you would like to read the all-boys version of Amanda in Wonderland. Because, I seriously have to admit, too much girls in a story may get pretty annoying for me. Except Black Rock Shooter, since it's a nice anime.

Anyways, I've been getting rather lazy in writing Amanda in Wonderland. BUT DON'T FUCKING WORRY. I'm gonna write it.

That is, once high school isn't getting too hellish for me.

Yeah, I don't even know why I'm making this Author's Note. No one reads this shit.

But probably some people like dearest RoseLocket, dearest BookwormGoddess, and maybe even dearest StarCookie is still reading this. Who knows. All I know is that I have only 3 readers.

Well, then.

Time to continue my homework. xDDD

Ohyeahs, and I've been into playing cards lately because of my classmate-our principal nearly caught us, but, YOLO =U

**~RennRaven**


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